Method of providing digital content for users of physical items

ABSTRACT

Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided for enhancing users&#39; overall experiences with physical items by supplementing their physical experiences with digital experiences. According to an embodiment, a user uses an electronic device to scan a smart tag associated with an item to obtain an item identifier of the item. The electronic device sends the item identifier to a server, which selects digital content related to the item.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/765,678, filed Feb. 12, 2013, entitled “Method of Providing DigitalContent for Users of Physical Items” (Allowed), which is herebyincorporated in its entirety by this reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate to enhancing users' overallexperiences with physical items by Supplementing their physicalexperiences with digital experiences, and, in particular enabling usersto scan smart tags associated with physical items to obtain relateddigital content.

BACKGROUND

Historically, companies that produced physical items distinguishedthemselves by making superior products and offering those products atcompetitive prices. This is still true. However, the growing ubiquity ofmobile computing devices is driving consumer demand for high-qualitydigital experiences and blurring the lines between physical and digitalexperiences. Accordingly, in addition to cost effectively buildinghigh-quality products, today's companies must build meaningful digitalexperiences around their physical products to distinguish themselves andto engage potential consumers.

While today virtually any product can be equipped with electroniccircuitry having more or less processing and communication capacities,there are physical, regulatory and economic boundary conditions, whichmust be observed. For example a small and lightweight product cannot beequipped with large and heavy electronic circuitry. On the other hand,in order to have a product participate in wireless networks, e.g. tomonitor and control the product, there must be a minimum of processing,transmit and battery power. Another aspect concerns regulationsregarding available frequency spectrums and transmit powers, which mustbe observed by products. Thus, a product cannot arbitrarily be equippedwith a radio module. Finally, complex electronics makes a product moreexpensive. Thus, there is a tradeoff between added “intelligence” andthe price which a potential consumer is willing to pay.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided for enhancing users'overall experiences with physical items by supplementing their physicalexperiences with digital experiences. According to an embodiment, a useruses an electronic device to scan a smart tag associated with an item toobtain an item identifier of the item. The electronic device sends theitem identifier to a server, which selects digital content related tothe item and sends the selected digital content to the user's electronicdevice for display.

According an embodiment, a method is provided for transmitting digitalcontent related to an item to an electronic device, the item associatedwith a smart tag encoded with an item identifier that identifies theitem, the smart tag configured to transmit the item identifier to theelectronic device when the electronic device is positioned proximate tothe smart tag. The method includes: receiving, at a server from theelectronic device , a request to provide digital content related to theitem, the request including the item identifier transmitted from thesmart tag to the electronic device upon positioning the electronicdevice proximate to the smart tag; searching, by the server, a databasehaving digital content to identify digital content associated with theitem identifier and related to the item; selecting, by the server, asubset of the identified digital content to transmit to the electronicdevice; and transmitting, from the server to the electronic device, thesubset of the identified digital content.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for transmittingto a user a virtual price tag for an item being offered for sale, theitem associated with a smart tag encoded with an item identifier thatidentifies the item, the smart tag configured to transmit the itemidentifier to an electronic device of the user when the electronicdevice is positioned proximate to the smart tag. The method includes:receiving, at a server from the electronic device of the user, a requestto provide the virtual price tag for the item, the request including theitem identifier transmitted from the smart tag to the electronic deviceupon the user positioning the electronic device proximate to the smarttag; searching, by the server, a database to identify a price of theitem if the item were purchased by the user; and transmitting, from theserver to the electronic device of the user, the price of the item, themobile device displaying to the user the price.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for registering anitem to a user account of a user, the item associated with a smart tagencoded with an item identifier that identifies the item. The methodincludes: receiving, at a server from a device, a purchase-indicationmessage for the item, the purchase-indication message indicating thatthe item has been purchased and is no longer being offered for sale, thepurchase-indication message including the item identifier thatidentifies the item; locating, by the server, in a database of item dataa subset of item data associated with the item identifier and related tothe item; setting, by the server, a registration flag in the subset ofitem data, the registration flag, when processed by the server, causesthe server to prompt the user to register the item to the user account;receiving, at the server from an electronic device of the user, arequest to provide digital content related to the item, the requestincluding the item identifier transmitted from the smart tag to theelectronic device of the user upon the user positioning the electronicdevice proximate to the smart tag; locating, by the server, in thedatabase of item data the subset of item data related to the item; andresponsive to processing the registration flag, prompting, by theserver, the user to register the item to the user account.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for transmittingdigital content related to an item to an electronic device, the itemassociated with a smart tag encoded with an item identifier thatidentifies the item, the smart tag configured to transmit the itemidentifier to the electronic device when the electronic device ispositioned proximate to the smart tag. The method includes: receiving,at a server from the electronic device, a request to provide digitalcontent related to the item, the request including a user identifier ofa user of the electronic device and the item identifier transmitted fromthe smart tag to the electronic device upon positioning the electronicdevice proximate to the smart tag; determining, by the server, whetherthe item is registered to the user, wherein at least one of the useridentifier and the item identifier is used to determine whether the itemis registered to the user; if the item is registered to the user,providing the electronic device with digital content designated forregistered users; and if the item is not registered to the user,providing the electronic device of the user with digital contentdesignated for non-registered users.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for unlocking abenefit in the event an item is checked in at one or more locations, theitem associated with a smart tag encoded with an item identifier thatidentifies the item, the smart tag configured to transmit the itemidentifier to a device positioned proximate to the smart tag. The methodincludes: receiving, at a server from a device located at a location, acheck-in message indicating check-in of the item at the location, thecheck-in message including the item identifier that identifies the itemand a location identifier that identifies the location, the itemidentifier transmitted from the smart tag to the device when the item ispositioned proximate to the device; locating, by the server, in adatabase a subset of check-in data related to the item, wherein the itemidentifier is used to locate the subset of check-in data; reviewing, bythe server, the subset of check-in data to determine whether the itemhas been checked in at the one or more locations; and unlocking, by theserver, the benefit if the item has been checked in at the one or morelocations.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for granting adevice access to information in the event an item is checked in at oneor more locations, the item associated with a smart tag encoded with anitem identifier that identifies the item, the smart tag configured totransmit the item identifier to a device positioned proximate to thesmart tag. The method includes: receiving, at a server from the devicelocated at a location, a check-in message indicating check-in of theitem at the location, the check-in message including the item identifierthat identifies the item and a location identifier that identifies thelocation, the item identifier transmitted from the smart tag to thedevice when the item is positioned proximate to the device; locating, bythe server, in a database a subset of check-in data related to the item,wherein the item identifier is used to locate the subset of check-indata; reviewing, by the server, the subset of check-in data to determinewhether the item has been checked in at the one or more locations; andgranting, by the server, the device access to information if the itemhas been checked in at the one or more locations.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for unlocking abenefit in the event an item is checked in at one or more locationsaccording to at least one of a prescribed schedule of check-ins and aprescribed order of check-ins, the item being associated with a smarttag. The method includes: receiving, at a server from a device, check-indata transmitted from the smart tag associated with the item to thedevice upon the item being positioned proximate to the device, thecheck-in data including a location identifier and a corresponding timefor one or more locations where the item has previously been checked in;and unlocking, by the server, the benefit if the check-in data obtainedfrom the smart tag satisfies at least one of the prescribed schedule ofcheck-ins and the prescribed order of check-ins.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for granting adevice access to information in the event an item is checked in at oneor more locations according to at least one of a prescribed schedule ofcheck-ins and a prescribed order of check-ins, the item being associatedwith a smart tag. The method comprises: receiving, at a server from thedevice, check-in data transmitted from the smart tag associated with theitem to the device upon the item being positioned proximate to thedevice, the check-in data including a location identifier and acorresponding time for one or more locations where the item haspreviously been checked in; and granting, by the server, the deviceaccess to information if the check-in data obtained from the smart tagsatisfies at least one of the prescribed schedule of check-ins and theprescribed order of check-ins.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for creating atimeline of information related to one or more items, each of the itemsbeing associated with a smart tag encoded with an item identifier thatidentifies the item, the smart tag configured to transmit the itemidentifier to a device when the device is positioned proximate to thesmart tag. The method comprises: receiving, at a server from a device,registration information related to one or more of the items, theregistration information including for at least some of the items a useridentifier of the user, an item identifier that identifies the item, anda date-of-acquisition, the item identifier transmitted from the smarttag to the device upon the device being positioned proximate to thesmart tag; obtaining, by the server, an item description of for at leastone or more of the items; generating an item timeline for the user, theitem timeline listing an item description and a date-of-acquisition forat least some of the items; and displaying the item timeline in agraphical user interface.

According to another embodiment, a method is provided for creating atimeline of events associated with an item, the item being associatedwith a smart tag encoded with an item identifier that identifies theitem, the smart tag configured to transmit the item identifier to adevice when the device is positioned proximate to the smart tag. Themethod comprises: receiving, at a server from a device, at least one ofa user identifier of a user of the item and an item identifier thatidentifies the item, the item identifier transmitted from the smart tagto the device upon the device being positioned proximate to the smarttag; obtaining, by the server, an item description of for the item;obtaining, by the server, a plurality of check-ins of the item;generating a timeline of events for the item, the timeline of eventslisting at least some of the check-ins; and displaying the timeline ofevents in a graphical user interface.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and advantages of embodimentsof the present invention, reference should be made to the ensuingdetailed description and accompanying drawings. Other aspects, objectsand advantages of the invention will be apparent from the drawings anddetailed description that follows. However, the scope of the inventionwill be fully apparent from the recitations of the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example environment forimplementing aspects of embodiments disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example electronic device, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating example smart tags associatedwith various example items, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example electronic deviceand an example smart tag and communication there between, in accordancewith at least one embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting aspects of an example system, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process of determining which applicationto use to request and display digital content and, if the application isnot already installed, download and install the application to anelectronic device, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a retail store where items are offeredfor sale, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 8 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofsending a request to obtain digital content related to an item beingoffered for sale, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 9A-D are schematic diagrams of example screenshots of a menu givinga user an option to obtain more information about an item, in accordancewith at least one embodiment.

FIG. 10 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofdelivering digital content related to an item being offered for sale, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 11 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofselecting a subset of digital content related to an item, in accordancewith at least one embodiment.

FIGS. 12A-B provide a flow diagrams illustrating example processes ofsending a request to obtain a virtual price tag for an item beingoffered for sale, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of an example screenshot of a menu givinga user an option to obtain a virtual price tag for an item as well as anexample virtual price tag, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 14 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofdelivering to an electronic device of a user a virtual price tag for anitem, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 15 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofadjusting a price of an item, in accordance with at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 16 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofreceiving notice that an item has been purchased or otherwise acquiredand registering the item to the acquiring user, in accordance with atleast one embodiment.

FIG. 17 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process of usingan electronic device to register an item, in accordance with at leastone embodiment.

FIG. 18 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofreceiving a user request to provide digital content related to an item,determining whether the requesting user is a registered owner orunregistered user, and providing the requested content, in accordancewith at least one embodiment.

FIG. 19 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofdetermining whether a user requesting content regarding an item is aregistered owner or unregistered user of the item, in accordance with atleast one embodiment.

FIGS. 20A-E are schematic diagrams of example screenshots of menuoptions provided to registered owners and unregistered users, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 21 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process of“checking in” at a location and storing check-in data on a smart tagassociated with an item, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 22 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofunlocking a benefit using check-in data stored on a smart tag, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 23 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process of“checking in” at a location, storing check-in data on a server, andunlocking qualifying benefits, in accordance with at least oneembodiment.

FIG. 24 provides a flow diagram illustrating a process of creating atimeline of information related to one or more items.

FIG. 25 is a schematic diagram of a screenshot of an example timelinecreated according to the process of FIG. 24, in accordance with at leastone embodiment.

FIG. 26 provides a flow diagram illustrating a process of adding an itemto an existing timeline and/or updating an existing timeline, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 27 provides a flow diagram illustrating a process of creating atimeline of events associated with an item, in accordance with at leastone embodiment.

FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram of a screenshot of an example timeline ofevents created according to the process of FIG. 27, in accordance withat least one embodiment.

FIG. 29 is an exemplary environment in which embodiments may beimplemented, in accordance with at least one embodiment.

FIG. 30 illustrates a block diagram of a special-purpose computer, inaccordance with at least one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, various embodiments will be described. Forpurposes of explanation, specific configurations and details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments.However, it will also be apparent to one skilled in the art that theembodiments may be practiced without the specific details, and thatvariations and other aspects not explicitly disclosed herein arecontemplated within the scope of the various embodiments. Furthermore,well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscurethe embodiment being described.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an environment 100 for implementingaspects in accordance with various embodiments. As will be appreciated,although environment 100 is provided for purposes of explanation,different environments may be utilized, as appropriate, to implementvarious embodiments. The illustrated environment 100 includes anelectronic device 102, which may include any appropriate device operableto send and receive requests, messages, or information over anappropriate network 116 and convey information back to a user 110 of thedevice 102. Examples of such electronic devices include mobile phones,electronic devices, mobile devices, handheld messaging devices, laptopcomputers, personal data assistants, electronic book readers, watches,wrist worn devices and the like.

According to embodiments, the electronic device 102 incorporates thefunctionality of one or more portable devices, such as a cellulartelephone, a media player, a personal computer, etc. A user may use theelectronic device 102 to view pictures and video, surf the web, etc.,even though the electronic device 102 is portable. The electronic device102 may allow a user to connect to and communicate through the network116, such as the Internet or local or wide area networks. For example,the electronic device 102 may allow a user to communicate using e-mail,text messaging, instant messaging, or other forms of electroniccommunication.

According to embodiments, the electronic device 102 communicates withother devices using short-range wireless connections, such asBluetooth®, radio-frequency identification (RFID) and/or near fieldcommunication (NFC). It is possible that NFC and RFID can work togetherin a way that an NFC-enable electronic device reads data from smart tagshaving RFID chips, or vice versa. As illustrated in FIG. 1, theelectronic device 102 uses a short-range wireless connection 118 tocommunicate with a smart tag 120 attached to item 124. For example, theelectronic device 102 obtains information from the smart tag 120 of theitem 124, and uses the obtained information to retrieve from the network116 digital content related to the item 124. The item 124 can be anyconsumer product or good purchased or otherwise acquired by the user110. For example, the item 124 may be apparel, such as shoes, socks,shirts, pants, hats, etc. Also for example, the item 124 may athleticequipment, such as footballs, soccer balls, tennis balls and rackets,heart rate monitors, watches, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example electronic device 102in accordance with various embodiments. As illustrated, the device 102is enclosed by an external casing 202 that protects the interiorcomponents from being damaged. The external casing can be made of anysuitable material such as plastic, metal, etc. The electronic device 102may include any number of tactile input controls, including switches,keys, buttons, touch sensitive buttons, etc. The device 102 alsoincludes a display 208 which may display various images generated by thedevice. The display 208 may be any type of display such as alight-emitting diode (LED) based display, a Retina display, aliquid-crystal display (LCD), etc. The device 102 may include a touchscreen 212 that a user can select elements of the display 208 bytouching the selected elements.

The display 208 may be used to display a graphical user interface (GUI)that allows a user to interact with the device. The tactile inputcontrols or the touchscreen may be used to navigate the GUI. Forexample, the icons may be selected by touching the appropriate locationof the touch screen 212. When an icon is selected, the device 102 may beconfigured to open an application associated with that icon and displaya corresponding screen. For example, when an athletic training icon isselected, the device 102 may open an athletic training program anddisplay a training menu presenting the various tools and featuresavailable in the athletic training program. The electronic device 102may include audio input and output elements, such as microphones thatreceive audio input and speakers that output sound.

The electronic device 102 may include one or more processors 204 thatprovide the processing capability required to execute the operatingsystem, applications, and other functions of the device 102. The one ormore processors 204 may include general and special purposemicroprocessors and/or a combination thereof. The processor 204 also mayinclude on board memory for caching purposes and may be connected to adata bus 210 so that it can provide instructions to the other devicesconnected to the data bus 210.

The electronic device 102 may also include storage memory 218 forstoring data required for the operation of the processor 204 as well asother data required by the electronic device 102. For example, thestorage memory 218 may store the firmware for the electronic device 102usable by the one or more processors 204, such as an operating system,other programs that enable various functions of the electronic device102, GUI functions, and/or processor functions. The storage memory 218may also store data files such as software applications, etc.

The electronic device 102 may also include one or more network devices232 for receiving and transmitting information over one or morecommunications channels. As such, the network device 232 may include oneor more network interface cards (NIC) or a network controller. In someembodiments, the network device 232 may include a local area network(LAN) interface for connecting to a wired Ethernet-based network and/ora wireless LAN, such as an IEEE 802.11x wireless network (i.e., WiFi).In certain embodiments, the LAN interface may be used to receiveinformation, such as the service set identifier (SSID), channel, andencryption key, used to connect to the LAN.

The network device 232 also may include a wide area network (WAN)interface that permits connection to the Internet via a cellularcommunications network. The network device 232 may also include apersonal area network (PAN) interface for connecting to a PAN such as aBluetooth® network, an IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) network, or an ultrawideband (UWB) network. The network device 232 may interact with anantenna to transmit and receive radio frequency signals of the network.The network device 232 may include any number and combination of networkinterfaces.

The electronic device 102 may also include a positioning device 236 usedto determine geographical position. The positioning device 236 mayutilize the global positioning system (GPS) or a regional or site-widepositioning system that uses cell tower positioning technology or WiFitechnology, for example.

According to some embodiments, the device 102 includes a scanner 220,such as a barcode scanner that may be used to obtain item identifyinginformation from a tag or label associated with an item 124, which thenmay be used by applications installed on the device 102. One of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize various devices and techniques forimplementing the scanner 220. The device 102 may also include a camera224. Similar to the scanner 220, the camera 224 may be used as part ofthe overall system to identify items 124, such as consumer products. Forexample, the camera 224 may be used to capture an image of a barcode ora QR-code, which then may be processed by the device 102 to extract theencoded product-identifying information. Techniques for processing avideo image to extract coded information will also be known by those ofordinary skill in the art.

The device 102 further includes a near field communication (NFC)interface 228 that allows for close-range communication, and may complywith such standards as ISO/IEC 18092, ISO/IEC 14443, ISO/IEC 21481, aswell as others known by those of ordinary skill in the art. The NFCinterface 228 may, for example, have a range of about 2 to 4centimeters. The close-range communication with the NFC interface 228may take place via magnetic field induction, allowing the NFC interface228 to communicate with smart tags that work with NFC. Smart tagsinclude, for example, NFC tags and radio frequency identification (RFID)tags. In this way, the NFC interface 228 may be used to identify an item124, such as a consumer product that contains a smart tag 120.

Referring now to FIG. 3, example smart tags 120 are shown being attachedto, embedded in, or otherwise associated with several items 124.According to embodiments, the smarts tags 120, which are also known as‘info tags’ or ‘tags’, have storage memory and a radio chip attached toan antenna. Smart tags, such as NFC and RFID tags are small, cheap andeasily integrated into different items 124. As illustrated, a smart tag102 is woven into, sewed to, glued to, knitted to, stuck to, orotherwise attached to the appropriate location on an item 124, such as ajersey 124 a, a shoe 124 b, a shoelace 124 c, shorts 124 d, and afootball 124 e. In the case of shoes, the smart tag 102 can beintegrated into the tongue, midsole, outsole, heel counter, and/or anyother suitable location. Further, for example, the smart tag 120 can beintegrated into or attached to hangtags that are attached to orotherwise associated with the item 124. It should be appreciated thatthese are merely examples and that smart tags can be attached to anytype of item 124 according to any manner know by those having skill inthe art.

According to embodiments, the smart tags 120 are passive and do not haveor require a power source. In this case, the smart tags 120 draw powerfrom the device that reads them. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4,a user activates an NFC application 400 on the electronic device 102. Insome examples, to activate the electronic device's NFC functionality,the user activates the NFC communication in the settings section of theelectronic device 102 (e.g., similar to Bluetooth® functionality).Activating the NFC communication and/or the NFC application 400 sends asignal to an NFC chip 402 inside the device 102. Electric current passesthrough the NFC chip 402, thereby causing a magnetic field 406 to beemitted from the NFC interface 228 of the electronic device 102. Whenthe user positions the electronic device 102 proximate to the smart tag120, the magnetic field 406 emitting from the NFC interface 228 inductsa current inside the smart tag 120 and thereby powers a storage memoryand radio chip 416 inside the smart tag 120. For example, a coil 410(a.k.a. antenna) of the smart tag 120 converts the magnetic field 406into electric current, which powers the chip 416 causing it to emitradio waves 420 that transmit data from the smart tag 120. For example,the radio waves 420 emitted from the smart tag 120 interact with themagnetic field 406 emitted by the electronic device 102, and the NFCchip 402 in the electronic device 102 obtains from the radio waves 420the data being transmitted from the chip 416. According to embodiments,the smart tag 120 can be a rivet, such as an NFC rivet. For example, therivet can have an NFC passive IC and antenna that can be riveted toexisting items, such as shoes and apparel. In some example, user couldtake a picture of the item with the rivet to drive specific content forthat item, as described herein.

In some embodiments, the data transmitted from the storage memory andradio chip 416 include instructions that cause the electronic device 102to perform a specific operation, such as launch a particular applicationor load a particular webpage. In other embodiments, the storage memoryand radio chip 416 store and transmit an item identifier 430 to theelectronic device 102, and an application independently running on theelectronic device 102 determines how to handle the item identifier 430.In still other embodiments, the storage memory and radio chip 416 storeand transmit a website address, an email address, and so forth.According to some embodiments, the smart tags are writable. For example,customized data may be written to a blank smart tag or to existing data.Further, according to embodiments, the smart tags can be locked orencrypted so that the data on the tags cannot be manipulated.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the network 116 may include any appropriatenetwork, including an intranet, the Internet, a cellular network, awireless local area network, a local area network, a wide area network,a wireless data network, or any other such network or combinationthereof. Components utilized for such a system may depend at least inpart upon the type of network and/or environment selected. Protocols andcomponents for communicating via such a network are well known and willnot be discussed herein in detail. Communication over the network may beenabled by wired or wireless connections and combinations thereof.

The illustrated environment 100 includes at least one server 122 and adata store 130. It should be understood that there may be severalservers (e.g., application servers, web servers, etc.), layers, or otherelements, processes, or components, that may be chained or otherwiseconfigured, and that may interact to perform tasks, such as obtainingdata from an appropriate data store. As used herein the term “datastore” refers to any device or combination of devices capable ofstoring, accessing, and/or retrieving data, which may include anycombination and number of data servers, databases, data storage devices,and data storage media, in any standard, distributed, or clusteredenvironment.

According to embodiments, the server 122 is an application server thatincludes any appropriate hardware and software for integrating with thedata store as needed to execute aspects of one or more applications forthe client device 102, and may even handle a majority of the data accessand business logic for an application. For example, the server 122 canbe an application server that provides access control services incooperation with the data store 130, and that is able to generatecontent such as text, graphics, audio, and/or video to be transferred tothe user, which may be served to the user by a native application on theclient device 102 by a web server in the form of HTML, XML, or anotherappropriate structured language.

The data store 130 is operable, through logic associated therewith, toreceive instructions from the server 122, and obtain, update, orotherwise process data in response thereto. In one example, a user mightsubmit a request for digital content related to a particular item 124.In this case, the data store 130 might access stored user information toverify the identity of the user, and it may access stored information toobtain information about the item 124. The information then may bedisplayed to the user. The user may review the results via a nativeapplication on the user device 102 or via a webpage that the user isable to view via a browser on the user device 102.

According to embodiments, any time a mobile browser on an electronicdevice 102, such as a mobile device, makes a request for content, thebrowser can evaluate information provided by the native device. Forexample, mobile browsers and other applications (such as applicationsdescribed herein for communicating with the digital content manager 510)are capable of providing programming interfaces into the native mobiledevice. According to embodiments, information stored locally onelectronic devices, such as browser cookies and cache, is used to selectcontent to be provided to users. For example, the information storedlocally on a user's electronic device may reflect the user's tapbehavior. This information can be interrogated by the web browser, andthe result of the interrogation is fetching predetermine web addressURLs and/or rendering predetermined HTML code. For instance, when a usertaps on an item with their electronic device and the device provides nolocal information (e.g., this could be a first tap), then electronicdevice's browser fetches a default mobile website. This website willstored on the electronic device to be used for future taps.

The next item the user taps an item, the stored website is rendered as asplash page to present something locally to the mobile browser and theuser while data is fetched from the network. This will give immediatefeedback to the consumer upon taping an item and thus improve thecustomer's experience. Additionally, treasure hunts and other campaignscould be implemented using local data to store on the electronic deviceeach location achieved. Thus, in the case of areas with poor networkconnectivity, the user would be able to check-in to locations becausethe information would be stored locally on the native device. In somecases, when the network connectivity is restored, the check-in data canlater be sent to a remote server.

The server 122 may include an operating system that provides executableprogram instructions for the general administration and operation of theserver, and it may further include a computer-readable medium storinginstructions that, when executed by a processor of the server, allow theserver to perform its intended functions. Suitable implementations forthe operating system and general functionality of the servers are knownor commercially available, and are readily implemented by persons havingordinary skill in the art, particularly in light of the disclosureherein.

The environment 100 in one embodiment is a distributed computingenvironment utilizing several computer systems and components that areinterconnected via communication links, using one or more computernetworks or direct connections. However, it will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that such a system could operate equallywell in a system having fewer or a greater number of components than areillustrated in FIG. 1. Thus, the depiction of the environment 100 inFIG. 1 should be taken as being illustrative in nature, and not limitingto the scope of the disclosure.

The environment 100 of FIG. 1 may include additional components and/orother arrangements, as illustrated in system 500 of FIG. 5. In thisexample, the system 500 includes a digital experience manager 510 thatresponds to requests from electronic devices to provide the electronicdevices with digital content related to particular items 124. In someembodiments, the digital experience manager 510 is an applicationexecuted on the server 122. The digital experience manager 510 can belaunched, viewed, and/or controlled using an electronic device 102, suchas via a web browser window.

As shown in FIG. 1, the user 110, for example, uses the electronicdevice 102 to scan the smart tag 120 of the item 124 and send a requestto the digital experience manager 510 to provide the electronic device102 with digital content related to the item 124. According to theillustrated embodiment, the digital experience manager 510 includes anapplication download module 514, an in-store content module 518, avirtual price tag module 522, a registration module 526, a registeredowner module 530, an unregistered user module 534, a check-in module532, a lock & key module 538, and a timeline module 542. The digitalexperience manager 510 reads and/or writes data to an application datastore 554, an item information data store 560, a user information datastore 564, a registration data store 568, a digital content data store572, a check-in information data store 576, and a benefit informationdata store 580. The data stores 554, 560, 564, 568, 572, 576, and 580may be implemented as part of the digital experience manager 510 orseparately from the digital experience manager 510 depending on theembodiment of the invention.

Application information 554 may include, for example, applications thatare available for download to an electronic device of a user and thatwill enable the user to interact with the digital experience manager510. For example, the application information 554 may includeapplications that interact with the in-store content module 518 toprovide users with digital content concerning items identified by theuser while shopping. Also for example, the application information 554may include applications that interact with the virtual price tag module522 to send item prices to users' electronic devices while the users areshopping in brick-and-mortar stores. It should be appreciated that theseare just illustrative examples of applications that may be in theapplication information 554, and that other applications may beprovided. Such applications may interact with the registration module526, the registered owner and unregistered user modules 530, 534, thelock & key module 538, the timeline module 542, among others. It shouldbe appreciated that one or more applications can be provided forinteracting with some or all of the modules 514, 518, 522, 526, 530,534, 532, 538, and 542.

Item information 560 may include, for example, a table of itemidentifiers and corresponding item descriptions, prices, modelnumbers/names, sizes, colors, links/references to related digitalcontent in the digital content 572, identifiers of registered owners,and links/references to user accounts of registered owners in the userinformation 564. Item information 560 may also include information aboutthe design, manufacture and distribution of the items. Item information560 may also include the names, stats, and other information of athletesand athletic clubs and teams that use said items, and information aboutuse of said items in sporting events (e.g., football was used in famousmatch).

User information 564 may include, for example, (1) personal informationabout the user, such as age, gender, income, current locationinformation (e.g., city, region, address), phone numbers, emailaddresses, interests, social network memberships, favorite collegiateand profession athletic clubs and teams, and the like; (2) user purchasehistory identifying items 124 previously purchased by the user, theprice paid for items 124, and the merchants from whom the items werepurchased; (3) a history of recommendations made by the user, includingthe identities of the people to whom the recommendations were made, therecommended items 124, the dates of the recommendations, and whether therecommendations were converted into an actual purchase. In some example,the recommendations were made by the user via social networks and/ormedia, blog comments and entries, and other electronic communications.Also for example, the recommend the product, the user can “tap” thesmart tag 120 of item 124 using their electronic device 102, therebycausing an application on the electronic device to recommend the item124.

User information 564 may also include, as an additional example, (4)athletic training data, such as data generated and used by athletictraining applications running on the user's electronic device. Saidathletic training data may include, for example, jogging routes andtimes, particular exercises and indication of when the user performedthose exercises, notes, fitness goals, fitness accomplishments, andphysiological data, such as heart rate, calories burned, VO2 max, etc.In particular, according to some embodiments, the athletic training data(a.k.a. workout data) may include the distance run using or wearing aregistered item, the number of hours of workouts, the number of theuser's registered items 124 categorized as athletic apparel orequipment, the type and number of achievements, including trophies,badges, awards, certificates etc.

User information 564 may be obtained through various mechanisms. Usersmay expressly input and provide the user information through a websiteapplication. For example, a website or application may enable a user tocreate and manage a user profile or account that is incorporated intothe user information data store 564. The user information may beobtained from a database of recorded historical purchases (online andoffline), the user's Internet search history, user demographicinformation, social graph (e.g., network of friends, relatives, workassociates, etc.), and the like.

Registration information 568 may indicate which items are registered towhich users. For example, the registration information may include atable of item identifiers and corresponding user identifiers of theitems' registered owners. It should be appreciated that the registrationinformation may be included in the item information and/or the userinformation.

Digital content 572 may include, for example, text, images, videocontent, animated content, games, and links to websites, any of whichcould include information about the items 124. According to someembodiments, an entity associated with an item 124 (e.g., manufacturer,merchant, retailer, vendor, advertiser, etc.) may provide, as part ofthe digital content, information about the item, and brand imagery,logos, advertising content, and promotional content. For example, anentity may provide information about related products, top-sellingitems, newest items, items within a certain price range, items popularin specific geographic locations and markets, and information aboutproducts that complement the items 124. For example, if a user isinterested in a particular basketball shoe, the entity may providedigital content about products that complement the basketball shoe, suchas basketball shorts, jerseys, sweatbands, basketballs, and the like.

Check-in information 576 may include, for example, the locations whereit was determined that a user used an item 124, and correspondinginformation, such time and exact location of use. For example, thelocation of use could be GPS location, address, city, state, region,and/or country. The location of use could also be the name or otheridentifying information of the business entity where the item waschecked in, such as a restaurant, an athletic event, a venue, etc. Thecheck-in information may include a table of item identifiers andcorresponding time, location, and/or user data for the instances wherethe item has been checked in. It should be appreciated that the check-ininformation may be included in the item information 560 and/or the userinformation 564.

Benefit information 580 may include, for example, information aboutbenefits available to qualifying users. For example, benefits may beservices and/or digital content delivered directly to the electronicdevices via text messages, email, or push message. Benefits may includeimmediate access to a sales person upon entering a retail store, accessto an athletic event, concert, or other event, access to an express lineor separate entrance at an event, and promotional offers, such asproduct discounts, etc. Benefits may also include access to exclusivedigital content.

According to an embodiment, the application download module 514downloads applications from the application information 554 to theelectronic device 102 that enable the user 110 to use the electronicdevice 102 to interact with the digital experience manager 510. Forexample, the application download module 514 may download from theapplication information 554 an in-store shopping application thatprovides information about on-sale items and enables users to obtain andview information about products. Other example applications arediscussed herein.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example process 600 of determining whichapplication to use to request and display digital content and, if theapplication is not already installed, download and install theapplication to an electronic device, according to an embodiment. Some orall of the process 600 (or any other processes described herein, orvariations and/or combinations thereof) may be performed under thecontrol of one or more computer systems configured with executableinstructions and may be implemented as code (e.g., executableinstructions, one or more computer programs, or one or moreapplications) executing collectively on one or more processors, byhardware, or combinations thereof. The code may be stored on acomputer-readable storage medium, for example, in the form of a computerprogram comprising a plurality of instructions executable by one or moreprocessors. The computer-readable storage medium may be non-transitory.The one or more computer systems may be, as an example, one or morecomputer systems in the environment 100 of FIG. 1 that collectivelyimplement the digital experience manager 510 described above inconnection with FIG. 5.

As indicated at block 604, the process 600 generally begins whensomeone, typically the user 110, scans a smart tag associated with anitem 124, typically for sale in a store where the user 110 is shopping.At block 608, the electronic device 102 processes data received from thesmart tag 120.

In some embodiments, the data from the smart tag 120, when processed bythe electronic device 102, causes the electronic device 102 to executean application that displays digital content related to the item 124.For example, processing the data received from the smart tag 120 causesthe electronic device 102 to execute a web browser that loads from a webserver a webpage specified in the data from the smart tag 120. In thisexample, the data from the smart tag 120 directs the electronic device'sweb browser to a particular webpage, which provides digital contentrelated to the item. In some examples, the web browser is a standard webbrowser that comes preinstalled on many electronic devices. Inoperation, according to an illustrative example, the user 110 uses theelectronic device 102 to “tap” or “scan” the smart tag 120 of an item124, such as a shoe. The saved instructions on the smart tag 120 causethe electronic device 102 to open a web browser and go to a website withinformation about the item (price, name, images, text, videos, etc). Insome cases, a cookie saved on the electronic device, such as in the webbrowser, causes the web browser to open a particular webpage, whichdisplays different specific content, every time a smart tag 120 isscanned. According to some examples, the webpage or website displayedcan be influenced by location of tap, time, day of the week, marketingcampaign to be run, previous tap locations, other taps by friends.

It should be appreciated that applications, other than web browsers, canbe launched, opened, and/or executed by the electronic device uponscanning a smart tag to display digital content related to the item. Forexample, a manufacturer or a retailer of item can make available fordownload to the electronic device 102 an application that enables theuser 110 to view digital content about scanned items. Example screenshots of such applications are illustrated in, and correspondingdescription is provided with reference to, FIGS. 9A-D and 13.

In other embodiments, the data from the smart tag 120, when processed bythe electronic device 102, causes the electronic device 102 to executean application that can be used with the item 124 to enhance the user'sexperience with the item. For example, if the item 124 is a joggingshoe, then the application can be a jogging application that tracks theuser's distance, jogging routes, heart rate, calories burned, etc. Anexample of such an application is miCoach® Application offered byadidas®. Example screen shots of such applications are illustrated in,and corresponding description is provided with reference to, FIGS.20A-E, 25, and 28.

At block 612, if the application specified by the data of the smart tagis already installed on the electronic device 102, the process 600proceeds to block 616, where the electronic device launches, opens,switches to, or otherwise executes the application (e.g., theapplication could be a web browser that is already open on the device,and the data from the smart tag causes the web browser to go to aparticular webpage or website). However, at block 612, if theapplication specified by the data from the smart tag is not alreadyinstalled on the electronic device, the process 600 proceeds to block620, where the data from the smart tag 120 causes the electronic device102 to send a download request to the application download module 514 ofthe digital experience manager 510. The download request includesinformation obtained from the smart tag that identifies the appropriateapplication (e.g., the application could be provided by a retailer ormanufacturer of items).

At block 624, responsive to the download request, the applicationdownload module 514 of the digital experience manager 510 sends theelectronic device 102 a link to download the application. At block 630,the electronic device 102 asks the user 110 to confirm whether the user110 desires to download the application. It should be appreciated that,at block 630, the application is automatically downloaded, withoutrequesting approval from the user. At decision block 634, the process600 ends if the user does not confirm. However, if the user confirms,the application is downloaded to the electronic device at block 640, andthe electronic device 102 launches the application at block 616.

Referring again to FIG. 5, the in-store content module 518 receives fromthe user device 102 of the user 110 a request to provide digital contentrelated to one or more items 124 being offered for sale, selects digitalcontent to send to the user 110, and sends the selected digital content.FIG. 7 provides a schematic diagram of an example retail store 700 wherea user may be shopping when the user queries the in-store content module518 for information about an item being offered for sale, in accordancewith at least one embodiment. It should be appreciated that the retailstore 700 is described herein for purposes of illustrating operation ofthe in-store content module 518 and other components of the digitalexperience manager 510. As such, the description of the retail store 700is not intended to limit embodiments of the various inventions describedherein.

Items 124 represent various items of athletic apparel and equipmentbeing offered for sale in the retail store 700, which is categorizedinto several sections, including a running section 712, a tennis section716, a football section 720, a baseball section 724, and a basketballsection 730. Items 124 related to running are presented in the runningsection, items 124 related to tennis are presented in the tennis section716, and so forth. By way of example, the items 124 presented in thefootball section 720 may include the jersey 124 a, the shoe 124 b, theshoelace 124 c, the shorts 124 d, and the football 124 e of FIG. 3. Asmart tag 120 is associated with each of the items 124 and stores, forexample, an item identifier 430 unique to each item. Smart-tag readers756 capable of communicating with the digital experience manager 510 areprovided at point-of-sale (POS) terminals 746 and doorways 750. Forexample, the smart-tag readers 756 provided at the doorways 750 areembedded in or otherwise associated with floor mats 760 that users stepon when entering and exiting the retail store 700. The smart-tag readers756 are capable of reading smart tags associated with user items, suchas shoes, when users walk across the floor mat 760. In this case, asdescribed in more detail below, the smart-tag readers 756 of the floormats 760 send the item identifier 430 along with “check-in” informationto the digital experience manager 510 when a user wears, carries, orotherwise transports an item in and/or out of the retail store 700 viathe doorways 750. Also for example, the smart-tag readers 756 providedat the POS terminals 746 notify the digital experience device 510 whenitems 124 are purchased, such as by sending the digital experiencedevice 510 an item identifier 430 of the item 124 along with anindication that the item has been purchased by a user. According toembodiments, smart-tag writers 764 may be located near the doorways 750.In some examples, the smart-tag writers 764 are also embedded in orotherwise associated with the floor mats 760. The smart-tag writers 764are capable of writing information on smart tags. For example, when auser 110 wearing shoes 124 having a smart tag 120 embedded therein stepson one of the floor mats 760, the smart-tag writer 764 writes on thesmart tag 120 information that indicates time and location, e.g.,geo-location, store identifier, venue identifier, etc. This information,for example, is stored on the smart tag 120 as check-in information andcan later be used to unlock benefits (see FIGS. 21-22). It should beappreciated that this information may be written to a server, whichstores the information in association with the smart tag 120 (e.g., theinformation is saved by an server or client computer in association withthe item identifier of the smart tag 120). It should also be appreciatedthat the smart-tag writer 764 and the smart-tag reader 756 can be thesame device.

FIG. 8 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 800 of aconstructing and sending a request to obtain digital content related toan item. As indicated at 804, the process 800 generally begins when theuser causes the electronic device to “scan” the smart tag of the itemfor which the user desires to receive digital content. For example, toscan the smart tag, the user 110 activates the NFC interface 228 of theelectronic device 102, if the NFC interface is not already active, andpositions the NFC interface 228 proximate to the smart tag 120 of theitem 124. During the scan, the electronic device 102 obtains from thesmart tag 120 the item identifier 430 associated with the item 124. Theelectronic device 102 may obtain additional information, such asinstructions regarding which application to launch. It should beappreciated that the application could be a web browser, or anapplication designed specifically to scan smart tags and obtain digitalcontent related to an item, or a general application for operating theNFC interface, etc. At 808, the electronic device launches theappropriate application, or prompts the user to download the appropriateapplication (see FIG. 6). As described above, the electronic device 102,upon receiving instruction code from the smart tag, automaticallylaunches the appropriate application or sends the appropriate downloadrequest to the application download module 514 of the digital experiencemanager 510.

At 810, once the application is launched on the electronic device, theapplication displays a menu of options to the user. It should beappreciated that, as illustrated, upon the application launching at 808,the process 800 proceeds directly to 822, where an request is sent toautomatically obtain digital content related to the item, such as price,video, images, etc. At 814, the user selects from the menu the option toget digital content related to the item. FIG. 9A provides an examplescreenshot 904 of a menu of options, including a “get info” option 908.At 818, responsive to the user's selection, the electronic device 102constructs a request to provide digital content related to the item. Therequest includes the item identifier that was obtained from the smarttag 120 associated with the item. It should also be appreciated that theimplicit or explicit request can include a user identifier of the user.At 822, the electronic device sends the request to the digitalexperience manager 510.

FIG. 10 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1000,whereby the digital experience manager 510, in response to the user'srequest, delivers digital content to the electronic device of the user.At block 1004, the request to provide digital content is received. Therequest may be explicitly requested by the user, or it may automaticallyrequested, without an explicit request by the user. At 1008, thein-store content module 518 searches the item information and digitalcontent data stores 560, 572 to identify digital content related to theitem. To do so, for example, the in-store content module 518 identifiesall digital content associated with the item identifier included in therequest. At 1012, the in-store content module 518 selects a subset ofthe identified digital content to provide to the user.

FIG. 11 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1100,whereby the digital experience manager 510 selects a subset of theidentified information to provide to the user. The process 1100generally begins at 1104, where the geographic location of the user isdetermined. According to embodiments, the geographic location isprovided in the request received from the electronic device. Forexample, the application that constructed the request obtainedgeo-location data from a GPS receiver of the electronic device andincluded the geo-location data in the request. In other examples, therequest received from the electronic device included (e.g. in the headerof the request) the language, country, region, city, time zone settingof the electronic device, and the geo-location of the user is inferredfrom that information. In still other examples the geo-location of theuser is determined based on cell tower and WiFi location data includedin the request from the electronic device. The in-store content module518 determines which of the identified digital content is relevant tothe geo-location of the user by assessing the relevance of theidentified digital content to the geo-location of the user. For example,the in-store content module 518 assesses whether a language spoken inthe geo-location of the user matches the language in which the digitalcontent is presented. Also for example, the in-store content module 518assesses the popularity in the geo-location of the subject matter of theidentified digital content, where the subject matter of the identifieddigital content can be a sport, a sporting event, a team, a venue, anarticle of apparel, type of apparel, a style of apparel, and a brand ofapparel.

According to embodiments, the language of the content presented to theuser 110 of the electronic device 102 matches the language setting ofelectronic device 102. Thus, regardless of which country the user islocated in when he ‘taps’ an item 124, content is presented in thelanguage that matches the language setting of the user's electronicdevice 102. For example, German-language content is presented to aGerman user whose electronic device's language setting is German, evenif the German user ‘taps’ an item to request digital content whilevacationing in Spain. Thus, the German user is presented withGerman-language content, regardless where he is located when he uses hiselectronic device 102 to obtain digital content related to items 124.According to an embodiment, when the German user taps an item 124 andhis electronic device 102 sends to the server 122 a request for digitalcontent, the request includes the language setting of the electronicdevice. Responsive to the request, the server 122 selects content thatis presented in a language that matches the language setting of theelectronic device. It should appreciated that data other than thelanguage setting can be used, such as the home country setting, the homecity setting, the web browser version, the device identifier, etc.

At 1108, the location of the user and/or the item 124 within the storeis determined. For example, with reference to the retail store 700 ofFIG. 7, the in-store content module 518 determines whether the userand/or item is located in section 712, 716, 720, 724, or 730. Accordingto some examples, the in-store content module 518 has access to a storemap, similar to the schematic of FIG. 7, where the map details thelocations of the items in the store based on item identifiers. Forexample, ranges of item identifiers are grouped into different locationsof the store. Thus, using the map and the item identifier, the locationof the user within the store can be determined. Additionally, thegeo-location of the user can be cross-referenced against the map todetermine the location of the user. As mentioned above, geo-location canbe determined based on information obtained from the GPS receiver of theelectronic device or from cell tower or WiFi location data. According toother examples, the location of the user within the store is determinedbased on a product category to which the item belongs. For example, ifthe item is a basketball, then the user is determined to be in thebasketball section of the store. The in-store content module 518determines which of the identified digital content is relevant tolocation of the user in the store by assessing the relevance of theidentified digital content to the location of the user. For example, ifthe user is in the tennis section of the store, then the in-storecontent module 518 identifies which of the identified digital content isrelated to tennis.

For example, when a user in a store looking at the soccer products tapshis electronic device on a soccer boot, then he receives informationabout the desired soccer boot with a soccer display background and maybespecific soccer commercials and messages about the product from a famoussoccer player. This experience should help the user to get the feelingthat he is in a kind of a simulated soccer world. The same applies whenthe user is in the basketball area or running area within the shop.Within every area and every tapped sport product in a shop, the userreceives tailored information about the product.

At 1112, the time at which the user sent the request is determined. Forexample, the time can be determined based on the time the request wasreceived. In another example, the time of the request is included in therequest itself, such as in the header of the request. The time may bethe time of day, the time of week, the time of month, the time of year,and/or the calendar season. For example, in the event the time coincideswith a sporting event that is popular in the user's geo-location, thein-store content module 518 identifies which of the identified digitalcontent is related to the sporting event. In another example, retailstores may have “happy hours”, where items are offered for sale at aspecial discount. In this example, in the event the time coincides withone of these “happy hours”, the in-store content module 518 identifieswhich of the digital content is eligible for the happy hour and,optionally, provides the discounted price any item included in thedigital content.

At 1116, user information, such as user profile data, about the user isobtained from the user information data store 564. For example, the userinformation includes a home address of the user, a number of relatedpurchases made by the user in the past, a number of related productrecommendations the user has made, and the number of times those productrecommendations converted into product purchase by the user or others.Any other useful user data may be obtained from the user informationdata base 564. The in-store content module 518 determines which of theidentified digital content is relevant to the user profile data. Forexample, the in-store content module 518 identifies digital content thatis related to: a popular professional athletic team in the user's homelocation; the user's previous purchases; items the user has previouslyrecommended; and/or items purchased by others at the recommendation ofthe user.

At 1120, a web cookie and/or browser cache is obtained from the requestreceived from the electronic device, which includes information aboutthe user's online browsing history, depending on settings and approvalby the user. The in-store content module 518 identifies which of theidentified digital content is related to the user's browsing history.

At 1124, the digital content identified at 1008 as being relevant to theitem 124 is evaluated against the information determined and/or obtainedat 1104, 1108, 1112, 1116, 1120, and/or 1124 to select the subset ofdigital content to send to the user. As discussed above, digital contentmay include, for example, text, images, video content, animated content,games, and links to websites, any of which could include informationabout the item 124. According to embodiments, from the digital contentidentified at 1008, the in-store content module 518 identifies a subsetof digital content that is relevant to the user's geo-location andlocation within the store, the time of the request, the user's profiledata, and/or the user's online browsing history, depending on settingsand permission from the user.

Referring again to FIG. 10, after selecting a subset of the identifieddigital content, the in-store content module 518 transmits or presentsthe subset to the electronic device of the user, at 1016. FIGS. 9B-Cprovide example screenshots of the subset of the identified digitalcontent, as it is presented on the electronic device. As illustrated inthe screenshot 912 of FIB. 9B, the digital content includes adescription of the item, suggested items that the user might beinterested in, a link to view a video of how the item was made, andcurrent news and events related to the item. The screen shot 912 alsoincludes a “next page” button 920. The user can selected button 920 toreceive additional content related to the item. For example, if the userselects button 920 of screenshot 912, screen shot 913 of FIG. 9C isprovided. As illustrated in screenshot 913, the digital content can alsoinclude the price of the item, a link to social network/media so thatthe user can see what his friends and others are saying about the item,and a link to a video about the backstory of the item. As illustrated inscreenshot 914 of FIG. 9D, the digital content can also include a linkto see how many of the items are in stock and the available color,sizes, annotations, etc. It should be appreciated that rather thanproviding a link, the actual inventory and available colors, sizes, andannotations can be provided directly to the user.

As illustrated in FIG. 9D, the user can also be presented with a“Purchase” button 924. This enables the user to purchase the item usingthe electronic device, and to avoid having to wait in line at apoint-of-sale terminal. In some embodiments, the user information 564includes the user's credit card and/or other payment and billinginformation. Upon selection of the “Purchase” button 924, the electronicdevice constructs and sends a purchase request to the digital experiencemanager 510. The purchase request includes the item identifier and theuser identifier. The digital experience manager 510 uses the itemidentifier to obtain pricing information from the item information 560,and it uses the user identifier to obtain the user's credit card and/orother payment and billing information form the user information 564. Thedigital experience manager 510 then uses the obtained information toprocess the purchase transaction. The user can be provided with aconfirmation code that the user can use to exit the store. For example,the confirmation code can be a barcode displayed on the user's mobiledevice that the store can ‘scan’ when the user exits the store. Also,for example, the digital experience manager 510 updates the iteminformation 560 to indicate that the item has been purchased. Thus, uponleaving the store, the store can scan the smart tag of item to getnotice that the item has been purchased.

With reference to FIGS. 12-15, the “virtual price tag” feature providedby the virtual price tag module 522 of the digital experience manager510 will be described. According to embodiments, a user can scan an itembeing offered for sale and request, either manually or automatically,that a price of the item be displayed on the user's electronic device,where the price is adjusted based on information about the user.

FIG. 12A provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1200 ofconstructing and sending a request to obtain a virtual price for anitem. As indicated at 1204, the process 1200 generally begins when theuser causes the electronic device 102 to “scan” the smart tag 120 of theitem 124 for which the user desires to receive a virtual price. Duringthe scan, the electronic device 102 obtains from the smart tag 120 theitem identifier 430 associated with the item 124. The electronic device102 may obtain additional information, such as instructions regardingwhich application to launch (e.g., the application could be a webbrowser that is already installed on the electronic device). At 1208,the electronic device launches, opens, switches to, or otherwiseactivates the appropriate application, or prompts the user to downloadthe appropriate application, if the application is not already installed(see FIG. 6). As described above, the electronic device 102, uponreceiving instruction code from the smart tag, automatically launchesthe appropriate application or sends the appropriate download request tothe application download module 514 of the digital experience manager510.

At 1212, once the application is launched on the electronic device, theapplication displays a menu of options to the user. At 1216, the userselects from the menu the option to get a virtual price tag for theitem. FIG. 13 provides an example screenshot 1304 of a menu of options,including a “get price” option 1308. At 1220, responsive to the user'sselection, the electronic device 102 constructs a request to provide aprice for the item. The request includes the item identifier that wasobtained from the smart tag 120 associated with the item. It should alsobe appreciated that the request can include a user identifier of theuser. At 1224, the electronic device sends the request to the digitalexperience manager 510.

FIG. 12B provides a flow diagram illustrating another example process1228 of constructing and sending a request to obtain a virtual price foran item. As indicated at 1204, the process 1200 generally begins whenthe user causes the electronic device 102 to “scan” the smart tag 120 ofthe item 124 for which the user desires to receive a virtual price.During the scan, the electronic device 102 obtains from the smart tag120 the item identifier 430 associated with the item 124. At 1230,responsive to scanning the smart tag 120, the electronic device 102launches a web browser or app that sends a request (e.g., http request)to obtain a virtual price tag for the item. For example, the web browserrequests from a web server a webpage that provides a virtual price tagfor the item 124. At 1234, the obtained virtual price tag isautomatically displayed via the web browser or app. For example, therequest webpage having the virtual price tag is displayed in the webbrowser.

FIG. 14 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1400,whereby the digital experience manager 510, in response to the user'srequest, delivers a price for the item to the electronic device of theuser. At block 1404, the request to provide a price for the item isreceived. At 1408, the virtual price tag module 522 searches the iteminformation data store 560 to identify pricing information for the item.To do so, for example, the virtual price tag module 522 identifies alisted retail price for the item. At 1412, the virtual price tag module522 adjusts the listed retail price for the user based at least in parton information about the user.

FIG. 15 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1500,whereby the digital experience manager 510 adjusts the price of an item.For example, the price may be reduced if the user is a loyal customerwho purchases related items, recommends that other users purchaserelated items, etc. According to embodiments, the virtual price tagmodule 522 reviews information about the user in the user informationdata store 564 when adjusting the price of an item. For example, theuser information data store 564 contains the user's user profile, whichincludes information regarding the user's history of purchases, theuser's history of making purchase recommendations to other users, andhow often the user's purchase recommendations are converted into actualpurchases.

At 1504, the process 1500 generally begins with reviewing the user'spurchase history. To do so, for example, the virtual price tag module522 accesses the user's user profile data in the user information datastore 564 to determine the number of related items previously purchasedby the user. Also, for example, the virtual price tag module 522 obtainsthe user's purchase history from a cookie or browser cache, etc.associated with the user's web browser and/or electronic device 102,which was used to request the virtual price tag. Further, for example,the user may manually provide the digital content manager 510 with theuser's purchase history, such as by including the purchase history inthe request for the price tag. For example, if the user is a frequentpurchaser of items associated with a particular manufacturer, brand,retailer, etc., then the virtual price tag module 522 reduces the listedretail price of the item accordingly. Also for example, if the user hasnever purchased or has not recently purchased items associated with aparticular manufacturer, brand, retailer, etc., then the price may bereduced to incent the user to purchase. Further for example, the pricemay be reduced if the user has previously purchased competitor items.

At 1508, the virtual price tag module 522 reviews the user'srecommendation history. For example, the virtual price tag module 522accesses the user's user profile data in the user information data store564 and reviews the user's history of making item recommendations toother users. In some cases, if the user frequently recommends that otherusers purchase items associated with a particular manufacturer, brand,retailer, etc., then the virtual price tag module 522 reduces the listedretail price of the item accordingly. At 1512, the virtual price tagmodule 522 reviews how often the user's recommendations are convertedinto actual purchases. For example, the virtual price tag module 522accesses the user's user profile data to compare the number ofrecommendations to the number of conversions. Recommendations for itemsrelated to the item in question can be considered, as well as therecommendations across all items. For example, if the user has a highconversion rate, then the virtual price tag module 522 may reduce theprice of the item so as to incent the user to recommend the item.Similarly, for example, the virtual price tag module 522 may reduce theprice of the item if the user has a high number of conversions, even ifthe user has a lower conversion rate.

At 1516, the virtual price tag module 522 determines the distancebetween the user's home location and the location from where the usersent the request for a virtual price tag. According to an embodiment,the user's home location is provided in the user information data store564. It should also be appreciated that the user's home location may beincluded in the request message received from the user's electronicdevice. For example, the application running on the electronic devicethat constructed and sent the request message could obtain from theelectronic device the user's home city, country, zip code, etc., andinclude that information in the request message. The location from wherethe user sent the request can be determined according to any of theexamples discussed above with respect to 1104 of FIG. 11. Once thevirtual price tag module 522 obtains the user's home location and thelocation from where the request was sent, it then determines thedistance there between. If the distance is fairly large, then the priceis only slightly reduced or not reduced at all. This is because the useris likely traveling on vacation or business, and is therefore morelikely to pay more. On the other hand, if the distance is short,indicating that the user is shopping near home, then the price may bereduced so as to incent the user to frequently shop at the location. Inother embodiments, the discount is more significant if the distance isfairly large, and the discount is less significant is the distance isshort.

At 1520, the virtual price tag module 522 determines the time at whichthe request was sent. This can be determined according to any of theexamples discussed above with respect to 1112 of FIG. 11. As mentionedabove, the time may be the time of day, the time of week, the time ofmonth, the time of year, and/or the calendar season. For example, in theevent the item is an article of clothing, such as a winter coat soon togo out of season, the price may be reduced. Also for example, if thetime of the request coincides with a sporting event near the location ofthe request and the item is related to that event, then the price may beadjusted, even if the item is an article of clothing that is soon to beout of season.

At 1524, the virtual price tag module 522 determines the currentinventory of the item. According to embodiments, inventory data may beincluded in the item information data store 560. Thus, upon receiving arequest to provide a virtual price, the virtual price tag module 522accesses the item information data store 560 to review inventory data ofthe item and determine the inventory of the item at the store from whichthe user sent the request. The inventory data may be organized by store,by item, and/or both. In one example, the price of the item may bereduced is there is a large inventory or (periodically) increased ifthere is a limited inventory.

At 1528, the virtual price tag module 522 reviews athletic dataassociated with the user. According to embodiments, athletic data may beincluded in the user information data store 564. Thus, upon receiving arequest to provide a virtual price tag, the virtual price tag module 522accesses the user information data store 564 to review the user'sathletic/workout data. The athletic data may include, for example, datagenerated and used by athletic training applications operating on theuser's electronic device, such as jogging routes and times, particularexercises and indications of when the user performed those exercise,notes, goals, accomplishments, physiological data, such as heart rate,calories burned, VO2 max, etc. The athletic data may also include thenumber of miles run, the number of miles run using or wearing aregistered item 124, the number of hours of workouts, and the number ofuser registered items that are categorized as athletic apparel orequipment. In some examples, the virtual price tag module 522 may adjustdown the price of the items based on the user's workout accomplishments.For example, if the user has run two hundred kilometers in the user'sregistered running shoes, then the virtual price tag module 522 mayadjust down the price of qualified running shoes to incent the user topurchase a particular model, brand, style, etc. of running shoes. Itshould be appreciated that the athletic/workout data can be stored in adata store 130 and/or locally on the electronic device 102.

According to some embodiments, the price of the item can be based onfuture sharing (e.g., the user recommending the item to other users).For example, the user can be presented with the option to agree toprovide a specific number of recommendations about the item within aspecific amount of time. For example, the user may agree to recommendthe product to one hundred friends on a social network or media with oneweek of purchasing the item. If the time expires and the number ofrecommendations has not been reached, then the user is charged for aprorated amount to cover the difference owed. It should also beappreciated that the user can made the recommendation as a perquisite toobtaining a discount on an item.

At 1532, the price of the item is adjusted based at least in part onevaluations made using the information obtained at 1504, 1508, 1512,1516, 1520, 1524, and/or 1528. For example, after obtaining the listedretail price of the item from the item formation data store 560, thevirtual price tag module 522 adjusts up or down the listed retail pricebased on said information.

Referring again to FIG. 14, after adjusting up or down the listed retailprice of the item, the virtual price tag module 522 transmits theadjusted price to the electronic device of the user, at 1416. Accordingto embodiments, the virtual price tag module 522 also transmitsinformation about why the price was adjusted. For example, the virtualprice tag module 522 may send an indication saying the price wasadjusted because the user logged two hundred kilometers in a pair ofregistered shoes, made twenty recommendations to buy the shoes, andeight of the recommendations were converted in to actual purchases. FIG.13 provides an example screenshot 1312 of the virtual price tag, as itis presented on the electronic device.

According to some embodiment, the user's “tapping activity” whileshopping in a retail store can be shared with retail stores and otherentities, subject to disclosure to the user and permission from theuser. This data would benefit business by enabling tracking consumerbehavior in store during shopping, looking at products and buyingproducts. This would enable the business to target promotions to theuser based on the users shopping habits.

According to embodiments, after an item has been purchased or otherwiseacquired, the purchasing or acquiring user can “tap” his electronicdevice 102 on the smart tag of the item to receive premiumregistered-owner content delivered to his phone. However, in someembodiment, the user must first register the newly purchased or acquireditem. With reference to FIGS. 16-17, a process for registering an itemto a user account of a user will be described. FIG. 16 explains theregistration process from the perspective of the digital experiencemanager 510, whereas FIG. 17 explains the registration process from theperspective of the user 110.

FIG. 16 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1600 ofregistering an item. At 1604, the process 1600 generally begins when theregistration module 526 receives a notice that the item has beenpurchased or otherwise acquired by a user. The notice is transmitted viaa purchase-indication message, which includes an item identifier for theitem.

Below are three illustrative examples how the registration module 526receives from a device a purchase-indication message. In a firstexample, with reference to FIG. 7, a smart-tag reader 756 at the POSterminal 745 is used to scan the smart tag 120 associated with the item124 to obtain the item identifier 430 associated with the item, and thensend the item identifier in a purchase-indication message to theregistration module 526. In a second example, also with reference toFIG. 7, a smart-tag reader 756, such as a floor mat 760, located at anexit 750 of the retail store 700 scans the smart tag and obtains theitem identifier as the item is being carried out of the store, and thensends the item identifier in purchase-indication message to theregistration module 526. In a third example, where a user-seller isgiving or selling the item to a user-buyer (rather than a user buyingfrom a store), the user-seller can use his or her electronic device 102to scan the smart tag 120 and send a purchase-indication message to theregistration module 526 (e.g., an example of re-assigning an item toanother user is discussed below with reference to option 2056 of FIG.20A).

In another embodiment of this third example, the user-seller can give acode/PIN to the user-buyer, who can submit the code/PIN to registeredthe item. For example, after purchasing an item, the purchaser (i.e.,the user-seller) can give the item to another user without priorregistration of the item. This way, the purchased item is registered tothe new owner and not to the purchaser. In some examples, the person whobuys the product gets a PIN/code either on the receipt, on his mobiledevice or via email. This PIN/code is provided to the new owner, who canuse the PIN/code to register the item. For example, the PIN/code can beincluded in the purchase-indication message that is sent to theregistration module 526 at 1604. The outcome of this registrationprocess would be the same as the new owner had purchased the product byhimself.

At 1612, the registration module 526 uses the item identifier to locateregistration data for the item. To do so, according to an embodiment,the registration module 526 uses the item identifier to locate in theregistration information 568 a subset of registration data associatedwith the item. For example, the subset of registration data may be arecord in a registration table or some other registration dataassociated with the item. It should be appreciated that registrationdata for the item may be included item information 560 and the userinformation 564.

At 1616, the registration module 526 sets a registration flag in theregistration data of the item. The registration flag indicates that theitem needs to be registered because it has been recently purchased orotherwise acquired. For example, to set the flag, the registrationmodule 526 “flips a digit” in the item's registration data.

At 1620, the user sends a request to the digital experience manager 510to obtain digital content related to the item. For example, this requestcould be sent by the new owner, who “tapped” his new item (e.g., abasketball) seeking to watch videos about the item. This request is sentfrom the user's electronic device 102 and includes an item identifierobtain from a smart tag 120 attached to the item. Responsive to therequest, the registration module 526 looks up registration data toconfirm the request was sent from the item's registered owner. In doingso, the server “sees” the registration flag. This tells the registrationmodule 526 that the item needs to be registered. Thus, before deliveringthe requested digital content (e.g. video), the registration moduleprompts the user to register the item.

At 1624, the user sends to the registration module 526 his or herregistration information. The registration information includes theuser's user identifier. At 1628, the server uses the user identifier tolook up user's account in the user information 654. At 1632, the item isregistered to the user by including the item identifier or a referenceto the item identifier in the user's account.

FIG. 17 provides a flow diagram illustrating an example process 1700 ofa user using an electronic device to register an item. Users may desireto register purchased items so that the user may qualify for benefitsprovided by the digital experience manager 510. As indicated at 1704,the process 1700 generally begins when the user causes the electronicdevice to “scan” the item's smart tag, such as by activating the NFCinterface 228 of the electronic device 102 and positioning the NFCinterface 228 proximate to the item's smart tag 120. During the scan,the electronic device 102 obtains from the smart tag 120 the itemidentifier 430 associated with the item 124. The electronic device 102may obtain additional information, such as instructions regarding theapplications to launch (e.g., the application could be a web browseralready installed on the electronic device). The electronic devicelaunches, opens, switches to, or otherwise activates the appropriateapplication, or prompts the user to download the appropriateapplication, if the application is not already installed (see FIG. 6).According to decision block 1708, if prompted to download anapplication, the user at 1712 follows instructions to download and thenlaunch the application.

According to embodiments, upon launching, the application sends the itemidentifier to the digital experience manager 510. The registrationmodule 526 uses the item identifier to look up registration informationfor the item. When doing so, if the registration module 526 “sees” theregistration flag that was set according to 1616 of process 1600, theregistration module 526 prompts the user to register the item in his orher user account. However at 1716, if the user does not have a useraccount, the user follows instructions to create a user account at 1720.For example, the user may be asked to enter a username and passwordand/or email-address and/or basic demographic information. A useraccount is then created in the user information 564 and the user'sinformation is stored in the user account.

At decision block 1724, if the user is not already logged into theaccount, then the user logs into the user account at 1728. For example,the user inputs his or her username and password and submits a loginrequest to the digital experience manager 510. At this point, accordingto an embodiment, the registration module, as result of finding theregistration flag, will cause the application running on the electronicdevice to automatically ask the user if he or she desires to registerthe item. However at 1732, if application does not automatically do so,then user selects the option to register the item at 1736 from an optionmenu. At 1740, the user selects “yes” in response of the question ofwhether he or she desires to register the item. This causes theregistration module 530 to register the item to the user, as discussedabove with reference to FIG. 16. It should be appreciated that the itemcan be automatically registered, without asking the user for permissionand without the user having to manual request registration. For example,the user “taps” the smart tag and the electronic device 102automatically sends a request that the item be registered to the accountof the user.

According to embodiments, a user can “tap” his phone on a smart tag ofan item to obtain digital content related to the item. FIGS. 18-20provide example processes for making this happen. In these examples,registered owners receive digital content designated for each registeredowner. This is exclusive, premium content that provides an engagingdigital experience, for example. On the other hand, unregistered usersreceive content designated for unregistered users. This content issometimes more akin to marketing content, for example. According to theexamples, a registered owner is a user of an item that purchased orotherwise acquired the item 124 and then registered item, such asaccording to processes 1600 and 1700. An unregistered user is a user ofan item who is not registered as the owner. Such users may havepurchased or acquired the item but did not register the item. Also, suchusers may be borrowing the item or may be friends or acquaintances ofthe registered owner and who “tap” the item. The users may be friends onsocial media, where their accounts are linked at friends.

Turning to FIG. 18, example process 1800 generally begins at 1804, wherethe user causes the electronic device to “scan” the smart tag of theitem for which the user desires to obtain digital content. For example,to scan the smart tag, the user 110 activates the NFC interface 228 ofthe electronic device 102 and positions the NFC interface 228 proximateto the smart tag 120 of the item 124. During the scan, the electronicdevice 102 obtains from the smart tag 120 the item identifier 430associated with the item 124. The electronic device 102 may obtainadditional information from the smart tag, such as instructionsregarding which application to launch, open, switch to, or otherwiseactivate. At 1808, the electronic device activates the appropriateapplication. For example, the instructions received from the smart tagmay instruct the electronic device to activate a specific application,such as a jogging application. Also, for example, the electronic devicemay know, based on the item identifier, the category of the item (e.g.,running shoe) and therefore automatically activate the appropriateapplication (e.g., jogging application). In yet another example, theelectronic device may launch an athletic application that has severalmodes. In this example, if the item is a running shoe, then theapplication may start in a “running mode” so that the user can simplystart running after tapping the shoe. Also in this example, if the itemidentifier of the item indicates that the item is in the category ofcycling shoes, then the athletic application starts in “cycling mode.”If the appropriate application is not already installed on theelectronic device, the appropriate application is downloaded to theelectronic device, as described in FIG. 6, and then launched. Uponlaunching, the application composes and sends to the digital experiencemanager 510 a request for digital content related to the item. Therequest includes the item identifier 430 obtained from the smart tag 120as well as a user identifier of the user. For example, the useridentifier may be a username, a number, a token, a serial number, agovernment-issued identification number, an International Mobile StationEquipment Identity (IMEI) number of the user's electronic device, or acode associated with the user's information in the user information datastore 564.

At 1812, the digital experience manager 510 receives the request fromthe electronic device 102. At 1816, the digital experience manager 510determines if the requesting user is the registered owner. FIG. 19provides an example process 1900 for making this determination. Theprocess 1900 generally begins at 1904, where the digital experiencemanager 510 engages the registration module 526 to obtain from theuser's request an item identifier and a user identifier. At 1906, theregistration module 526 uses the item identifier to look up registrationinformation 568 for the item. For example, the registration module 526may locate a registration record (a.k.a. subset of registration data)for the item. It should be appreciated that the registration record canbe located in any or all of the item information 560, the userinformation 564, or the registration information 568. At 1912, theregistration module 526 determines whether the user identifier is listedas the registered owner of the item. For example, the registrationmodule 526 looks to see if the user's identifier is listed in theregistration record as the owner. In this case, the user identifier or areference or link to the user identifier may be included in the ownercolumn of the record.

At decision block 1916, if the user identifier of the requesting user islisted or otherwise indicated as being the registered owner of the item,then a conclusion is made at 1920 that the requesting user is theregistered owner of the item. However, if the user identifier of therequesting user is not listed or otherwise indicated as being theregistered owner of the item, then a conclusion is made at 1924 that therequesting user is an unregistered user of the item.

According to an embodiment, in the event the requesting user is notlisted as the registered owner of the item a determination is maderegarding whether the user is associated with the registered owner, suchas by a social network. For example, if the requesting user is “friends”with the registered owner on a social network or media, then therequesting user is treated the same as or similar to the registeredowner.

Referring again to FIG. 18, at decision block 1820, if the item isregistered to the requesting user (i.e., if the requesting user is theregistered owner) or, optionally if the requesting user is “friends”with the registered owner, the process 1800 proceeds to 1824, where amenu of options designated for registered owners is presented to theuser. According to an embodiment, to provide a menu of optionsdesignated for registered owners, the registered owner module 530accesses the digital content 572 and searches through the availableoptions to identify options that are tagged as being available forregistered owners of the item. Also, for example, the registered ownermodule 530 accesses the user information 564 to identify the menuoptions designated in the user's user account. The user may havemanually selected these options or the options may have beenautomatically inputted into the user account upon registration of theitem. Further, for example, the registered owner module 530 accessesitem information 560 to identify options available to registered ownersof the item. The registration module 526 then compiles a list ofavailable menu options and transmits the list for display by theelectronic device of the user. For example, the registration module 526transmits the list to the appropriate application operating on theelectronic device, and the application displays the listed options tothe user.

FIGS. 20A-E provide example screenshots of menu options that can beprovided to users. It should be appreciated that the menu options ofFIGS. 20A-E are merely examples and that many other options can beprovided. Screenshot 2004 of FIG. 20A illustrates an example menu ofoptions designated for registered owners. The screenshot 2004 includes awelcome message 2008 that provides the name of the item 124. An optionsmenu 2012 is presented below the welcome message. The option menu 2012includes the option 2016, which provides exclusive news and information.Selection of this option will, for example, give the user the option ofselecting from special video, reports, pictures, and news that give theproduct “life,” such as video that describes how, where, and by whom theitem was produced, video that describes key features and uses of theitem, video of interviews of other users, such as famous athletes, abouthow, when, and where they use the item, video that provides specificsabout the item, and video that shows the item's triumphs, such as famouscompetitions (e.g., football matches) where the item (e.g., football)was used, images of athlete, messages from athletes, VIP messages,reports, etc. Option 2020 provides statistics and other information aswell as video of famous individuals, such as athletes, that use theitem. For example, this option may provide video of a famous athleteusing the item. In one example, the item could be basketball shoes, andthe video could feature a famous basketball player wearing the shoeswhile giving a basketball lesson.

Option 2020 may also provide statistics and news about the famous personand his or her use of the item. Option 2024 enables the user to check inat a location. For example, this option causes the electronic device tosend location and time information to the check-in module 532 of thedigital experience manager 510. The check-in module 532 saves this datain the check-in information data store 576. Checking in and associatedbenefits are discussed below in more detail. Option 2028 providesavailable games and contests for registered owners of the item. Forexample, if the item is sponsored by a famous athlete, an availablecontest may include checking the item in at qualifying events where thefamous athlete competes and uses the item. The results of the contestcan be posted on social media or within a special application on anelectronic device. Option 2032 provides a link to an exclusive websitefor users. This website may provide more videos, news, and otherinformation about the item, exclusively available to registered owners.According to embodiments, the content displayed on the website may beinfluenced by the location of the electronic device when it “taps” thesmart tag and requests digital content related to the item. The contentof the website may also be influenced by the time of day, day ofweek/month, month of year, calendar season, locations of previous taps,locations of taps made by the user's social network friends, etc.

Option 2036 provides exclusive offers for registered owners of the item.For example, the offers may be coupons that users can redeem online orat merchant locations using their electronic devices. Option 2040 maylaunch a training or workout application, which automatically starts aworkout for the user based on the item and/or the location of the userwhen he or she taps the item. For example, if the item is a running shoeand the user is outside when tapping, a running application or atraining application may automatically launch and provide functionalityspecific to running. More specifically, for example, if item identifierincluded in the request indicates the item is a running shoe and/or ifthe request includes information indicating the requesting user isoutdoors (e.g., the request includes GPS or other location data thatindicates the user is outdoors, an indication that no WiFi signal isavailable, etc.), an inference is made the user is about to go for a runand thus a training application is automatically launched on the mobiledevice. In some examples, the workout application starts on the firsttap and stops on the second tap, and the workout can be saved and/orsynchronized on the digital content manager 510. Option 2044 providesthe user with the user's personal training or workout information. Itshould be appreciated that personal training or workout information canbe associated with the user or it can be associated with the itemitself. For example, information associated with the user can be storedin the user's account in the user information 564. Such information caninclude the total distance that the user has run, regardless of whichshoes or other items the user was wearing or using while running. On theother hand, for example, information associated with an item relates toworkouts and training that has been done wearing or using that specificitem (e.g., total distance run in shoes, regardless of user). In eithercase, the personal training or workout information could include speed,route, elevation, distance, time, calories burned, average/max heartrate, etc. and the statics could have been generated based on datareceived from devices attached to the user and/or the item. Such devicesinclude accelerometers, GPS receivers, heart rate monitors, etc. Asdescribed herein with reference to FIGS. 24-28, option 2048 enables theuser to edit or create a timeline of information related to one or moreitems.

Option 2052 provides registered owners with the option of obtainingearly or unique access to items not yet available online or at retailbased on the user's profile information. For example, the user mayselect option 2052 and, based on his profile information, be presentedwith not-yet-released items that the user can learn about and optionallypurchase using the user device 102. The purchased items can then bedelivered to the user's home or held at the local retail store forpick-up.

Option 2056 provides registered owners or other users with the option ofre-assigning the item to another user. For example, in the event theregistered owner sells or gives the item to another user, the registeredowner can select option 2056 to reassign the item to the new user. Insome embodiments, upon selecting option 2056, the user is prompted toinput the name, user identifier, or some other indication of the user towhom the item is to be re-assigned. Up doing so, the digital contentmanager 510 updates the registration information 568 to reflect that theitem is now assigned to the new user. Thus, the privileges of being aregistered owner transfer to the new owner.

Screenshot 2089 of FIG. 20C illustrates another example menu of optionsdesignated for registered owners. As illustrated, upon scanning theitem, the user is presented with an image of the item as well as adescription of the item. The screenshot 2089 also provides users with a“workout” button 2090 that starts a workout application (e.g., miCoach®Application offered by adidas®). Upon selecting this button, forexample, the user is presented with screenshot 2094 of FIG. 20D. In thisexample, the workout application is a running application. Asillustrated, the user can search saved routes, create a new route, getroutes from friends (link to social networks), see the user's runninghistory (e.g., log of historical runs), and see the user stats. Therunning application of FIG. 20D is just one of many example workoutapplications.

Referring again to the screenshot 2089 of FIG. 20C, the user is alsopresented with a “get content” button 2092. Upon selecting this button,for example, the user is presented with screenshot 2096 of FIG. 20E,where the user can click to see exclusive offers, see training videosfrom famous athletes that use the item, recommend to item to friends(e.g. via social media), and see a video on how to care for the item.These are just a few example options that can be presented to the user.It should be appreciated that other information related to the item canbe provided.

For example, the item can be a soccer ball having a smart tag inside oneof the ball panels so that when tapped by an electronic device,specifics about the ball come to life on the device. For example, theelectronic device may provide a “road to production” video, a “how theball was tested” video, a “where the ball was manufactured”, and a “whenthe ball was announced to the public” video. It should be appreciatedthat the registered owner of an item is able, via tapping on the smarttag on the item, to see and track the product through manufacturing,distribution and store inventory. This is more or less the supply chain.This could be used for regular products as well as for customizedproducts. Also, each day during the famous soccer tournaments, originaland exclusive video about the ball's triumphs in the tournament areavailable for the owner and his friends who have electronic devices.Content could be tied directly to the ball and those purchasing the ballafter the famous tournament has started will be able to review previousdays.

In another example, the item can be shoes that are sponsored/promoted bya famous basketball player. A smart tag is provided inside the shoe toenable tap by electronic devices to get exclusive stats and videos forthe famous basketball player on a daily basis. Dynamic visuals can beshow the basketball player's shooting locations on the court. Also,acceleration and performance data can be made available for shoes thathave accelerometers and other types of performance sensors.

In yet another example, the item may be made of advanced technology. Theitem may include a smart tag to enable tap by electronic devices to seevideo of key features, testing videos, information about the item, suchas material used who else is wearing or using the item.

According to embodiments, if someone, such as an unregistered owner‘taps’ on an item registered to an owner, then they may get preferredpricing for that item based on the owner's profile information. In somecases, upon tapping on the item, the unregistered user gets access viahis mobile device to a webpage where the user can purchase the item at apreferred price. In other embodiments, upon tapping the shoe, a voucheris created and sent to the mobile device of the unregistered user. Thevoucher may be redeemed at retail locations to obtain the tapped on itemor other items at a preferred price. This could make the registeredowner popular among their friends and provide incentives for others topurchase and share.

Referring again to FIG. 18, at decision block 1820, if the item is notregistered to the user, a menu of options designated for unregisteredusers is provided to the requesting user at 1828. According to anembodiment, to provide a menu of options designated for unregisteredusers, the unregistered user module 534 accesses the digital content 572and searches through the available options to identify options that aretagged as being available for unregistered users of the item. Also, forexample, the unregistered user module 534 accesses the user information564 to identify the menu options designed in the user's user account.The user may have manually selected these options. Further, for example,the unregistered user module 534 accesses item information 560 toidentify options available to unregistered users of the item. Theunregistered user module 534 then compiles a list of available menuoptions and transmits the list for display by the electronic device ofthe user. For example, the unregistered user module 534 transmits thelist to the appropriate application operating on the electronic device,and the application displays the listed options to the user.

As mentioned above, FIGS. 20A-E provide example screenshots of menuoptions that can be provided to users. It should be appreciated that themenu options of FIGS. 20A-E are merely examples and that many otheroptions can be provided. Screenshot 2060 of FIG. 20B illustrates anexample menu of options designated for unregistered users. Thescreenshot 2060 includes a welcome message 2064 that provides the nameof the item 124. An options menu 2068 is presented below the welcomemessage. The option menu 2068 includes option 2072, which provides theoption to purchase the same item. For example, selection of this option2072 provides the electronic device's web browser to a uniform resourcelocator (URL) associated with an online merchant, where the unregistereduser can purchase the item. According to embodiments, the URL includes acode associated with the item that represents the exact configuration ofthe item (e.g., color scheme, materials, logos, size, etc), such thatthe user does not have to manually input this information. According toembodiments, if the user who tapped the item decides to purchase theitem, the owner gets credit for the referral. Option 2076 enables theuser to learn more about the item by providing the user with relatednews, information, and marketing content. Selection of this option will,for example, give the user the option of selecting marketing andinformation video/images/reports about the product and how to purchasethe product, or directly purchase the product. According to embodiments,if the user purchases the item, the owner gets credit, reward, batch,points, etc. for the referral. This option can also provide the userwith any of the content mentioned above with reference to options 2016,2020, and others.

Option 2080 provides the user with the owner's personal training orworkout information, depending on the owner's privacy settings. Forexample, it provides the current training statistics of the owner and/orthe statistics specific to the item, such as distances, jump height,number of workouts, kind of workouts, age of shoes or apparel or otherdata which is saved on the server 122 and/or mobile device 102. Option2084 gives the user the option to transmit his or her workouts (e.g.performance info and route) to the smart tag of the item, or to copyfrom the smart tag the owner's stored workouts. For example, theworkouts could be jogging routes, cycling routes, swimming laps,cross-training exercise, etc. The information could also be the owner'sstatistics, such as basketball statistics. For example, the owner coulduse his or her electronic device to write statistical data to the smarttag of the item, and others can user their electronic device to copy thedata. If the person who was tagged does not have an account, then anaccount can be created for them based on their email address. Once theyclaim the account they will have a workout history waiting for them.Option 2088 enables the user to create a friend connection with the useron a social network. For example, selection of this option afterscanning the smart tag could cause the user's electronic device to senda friend request to the social network. According to some embodiments,mutual tagging of item automatically creates a friend connection on asocial network.

According to embodiments, an owner/user can provide his emergencycontact information to the digital content manager 510. For example, theemergency contact information may be stored in the user's account in theuser information 564. In the event of an emergency, a non-registereduser (e.g., hospital personnel) can scan the smart tag of one of theowner's registered products to obtain the owner's emergency contactinformation (e.g., phone numbers of people to contact in case of anemergency) as well as other emergency information, such as medicalinformation (e.g., blood type, allergic to penicillin, etc). Forexample, if an owner is injured while jogging, emergency personnel canscan the smart tag of his shoes to obtain his emergency contactinformation and his medical information.

Referring again to FIG. 18, at decision block 1832 the user's selectionof a menu option is received. For example, after a registered ownerselects one of the options presented on option menu 2012, the registeredowner's electronic device sends an indication of the selection to theregistered owner module 530. Similarly, for example, after anunregistered user selects one of the options presented on option menu2068, the unregistered user's electronic device sends an indication ofthe selection to the unregistered user module 534. At 1836, the selectedoption is provided to the user. For example, if the user is a registeredowner, the registered owner module 530 accesses the digital content datastore 572 to identify the appropriate digital content to send to theelectronic device of the registered owner. It should be appreciated thatother modules, such as the unregistered user module, the lock & keymodule, the timeline module, etc., can select and send digital contentto the user.

With reference to FIGS. 21-23, example processes are provided forunlocking benefits. For example, a user may unlock a benefit by“checking in” an item, such as a jersey or a pair of shoes, atparticular locations according to a prescribed schedule. For example,the prescribed schedule may specify that a user “check in” at least tenprofessional basketball games in a single season. Upon the usersatisfying the prescribed schedule of check-ins, the benefit isunlocked. Benefits can include just about anything. In the abovebasketball example, the benefit may be free admission to the eleventhbasketball game, eligibility to use the express lane when enteringfuture basketball games, ticket upgrades, discounts on concessions andother items, access to premium digital content, such asbehind-the-scenes video of your favorite team, and so forth. In someembodiments, the benefit is delivered to the user's electronic device inthe form of a digital ticket, coupon, token, etc.

With reference to FIGS. 21-23, example processes are provided forunlocking benefits. For example, a user may unlock a benefit by“checking in” an item, such as a jersey or a pair of shoes, atparticular locations according to a prescribed schedule. For example,the prescribed schedule may specify that a user “check in” at least tenprofessional basketball games in a single season. Upon the usersatisfying the prescribed schedule of check-ins, the benefit isunlocked. The benefit can be any one of seeming endless possiblebenefits. In the basketball example above, the benefit may be freeadmission to the eleventh basketball game, eligibility to use theexpress lane when entering future basketball games, ticket upgrades,discounts on concessions and other items, access to premium digitalcontent, or such as behind-the-scenes video of the user's favorite team.In some embodiments, the benefit is delivered to the user's electronicdevice in the form of a digital ticket, coupon, token, etc.

Turning to FIGS. 21 & 22, an example process 2100 generally begin at2104, where a user checks in at a location by positioning a smart tagassociated with an item proximate to a smart-tag writer. At 2108 thesmart-tag writer writes check-in data to the smart tag, and at 2112 thesmart tag stores the check-in data. The smart tag data may include timeand location-identifying information, e.g., geo-location, storeidentifier, and venue identifier.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 7, an illustrative example of process 2100will be provided. At 2104, the user 110 checks-in at the retail store700 when the user steps his shoe 124 on the floor mat 760 proximate thesmart-tag writer 764, which writes check-in information to the smart tag120 associated with the shoe 124. The check-in information can includean item identifier of the item, a time of the check-in and a location.

Process 2200 of FIG. 22 illustrates unlocking a benefit, in embodimentswhere check-in data is stored locally on a smart tag. At 2204, a userpositions a smart tag of an item proximate to a smart-tag reader, and at2208 the smart-tag reader obtains from the smart tag check-in data forthe item. For example, with reference to FIGS. 1, 5, and 7, the user 110steps his shoe 124 on the floor mat 760 proximate the smart-tag reader756, which obtains check-in data from the smart tag 120.

At 2212, the smart-tag reader sends the check-in data to a server. Forexample, the smart-tag reader 756 of FIG. 7 sends the check-in data tothe digital experience manager 510. At 2216 the server locates benefitinformation comprising one or more prescribed schedules of check-ins.For example, the lock & key module accesses the benefit information 580.As discussed above, a prescribed schedule of check-ins specifiescheck-in locations and corresponding times required to unlock atbenefit.

At 2220, the server determines if the check-in data obtained from thesmart tag satisfies any of the prescribed schedules of check-ins locatedin the benefit information 580. For example, the lock & key module 538compares the check-in data obtained from the smart tag 120 against tobenefit information 580 to determine if the check-in data satisfies anyof the prescribed schedules of check-ins located in the benefitinformation 580. At decision block 2224, if any of the prescribedschedules of check-ins are satisfied, the lock & key module 538 unlocksthe corresponding benefits at 2228. Referring again to decision block2224, if none of the prescribed schedules of check-ins are satisfied,the server does not unlock any benefits at 2232.

Turning to FIG. 23, a flow diagram is provided illustrating an exampleprocess 2300 of “checking in” at a location, storing check-in data on aserver (rather than on a smart tag as in FIGS. 21-22), and unlockingqualifying benefits. At 2304, a user positions a smart tag associatedwith an item proximate to a smart-tag reader, and at 2308 the smart-tagreader obtains an item identifier from the smart tag. For example, withreference to FIGS. 1, 5, and 7, the user 110 steps his shoe 124 on thefloor mat 760 proximate the smart-tag reader 756, which obtains the itemidentifier of the shoe 124 from the smart tag 120.

At 2312 the smart-tag reader sends a check-in message to a server, andat 2316 the server stores the check-in message. For example, thesmart-tag reader 756 sends a check-in message to the check-in module532, which stores the check-in message and/or the information therein inthe check-in information 576. To store the check-in message, thecheck-in module 532 uses the item identifier included in the check-inmessage to locate a sub-set of check-in information 576 for the item andstores therein the location and time information obtained from thecheck-in message.

The server looks to see if the user is eligible to unlock any benefits.At 2324 the server locates benefit information comprising one or moreprescribed schedules of check-ins. For example, the lock & key module538 accesses the benefit information 580. As discussed above, aprescribed schedule of check-ins specifies check-in locations andcorresponding times required to unlock at benefit. At 2328, the serverdetermines if the check-in data obtained from the smart tag satisfiesany of the prescribed schedules of check-ins located in the benefitinformation 580. For example, the lock & key module 538 compares thecheck-in data obtained from the smart tag 120 against the benefitinformation 580 to determine if the check-in data satisfies any of theprescribed schedules of check-ins located in the benefit information580. At decision block 2332, if any of the prescribed schedules ofcheck-ins are satisfied, the lock & key module 538 unlocks thecorresponding benefits at 2336. Referring again to decision block 2332,if none of the prescribed schedules of check-ins are satisfied, theserver does not unlock any benefits at 2340.

As mentioned above, the benefit may be delivered to the electronicdevice of the user and may be priority access at a location or event.For example, services can be delivered directly to their mobile phonesvia text message, email or push message. In another example, the ownergets direct access to a sales person in a shop when he walks over a matwhich is lying at the entrance. The sales person immediately walks up tothe owner and gives him a premium service. Also, for example, at aconcert or soccer match, the owner can use a separate entrance or fastlane. To get such access, the owner walks over a mat with his specialregistered pair of shoes. Further, for example, the owner gets tailoredmarketing campaigns and product discounts at popular destinations withthe requisite of wearing a specific pair of shoes or other items.

Referring to FIG. 24, a flow diagram is provided illustrating a process2400 of creating a timeline of information related to one or more items.FIG. 25 is a schematic diagram of a screenshot of an example timeline2500 created according to process 2400, in accordance with at least oneembodiment. The illustrated timeline 2500 lists a user's items inchronological order by date-of-acquisition. For each item, the timelinemay include an item description 2504, a photograph or image 2508, usernotes and comments 2512, and friends' notes and comments 2514. It shouldbe appreciated that other information may be provided, such as links towebpages where the items can be purchased and/or where more informationabout the items may be obtained, user reviews of the items, etc. Thetimelines created herein can be shared on social networks and/or inprivate cloud folders.

At 2404, the process 2400 generally begins when a user launches anapplication on an electronic device and at 2408 selects from anapplication menu an option to create a timeline of items. For example,to launch the application, the user may access the electronic device andselect the icon associate with the item. Also for example, the user maylaunch the application by scanning a smart tag associated with an item.Once the application launches, according to an embodiment, the user ispresented with a user interface similar to screenshot 2004 of FIG. 20,and the user selects Option 2048 (“Create timeline”) from the menu 2012.It should be appreciated that timeline could also be an inventory ordashboard of the user's registered items. For the registered items, thetimeline may display or provide a link to additional information, suchas distances, number of workouts, number of hours in operation, awards,rewards, batches, points, credits, etc. The timeline can be saved indata store 130, such as in the user information 564, the iteminformation 560, etc. The timeline can also be save and presented bysocial networks, which can be opened with several apps or web browserson several devices.

At 2412, the application sends to a server a request to create atimeline, where the request includes a user identifier of the user. Forexample, the electronic device 102 sends a request, including the useridentifier of the user, to the timeline module 542 of the digitalexperience manager 510. At 2416 the server obtains registrationinformation related to one or more items so as to compile a list ofitems and associated information. For example, the timeline module 542uses the user identifier to search the user information 560 and/or theregistration information 568 to identify items associated with the user,including the item identifiers, dates of acquisition, user comments,user photographs of items, etc. After identifying the items, thetimeline module 542 may use the item identifiers to search the iteminformation 560 to obtain item descriptions, images, links to webpageswhere the items may be purchase or where more information may beobtained, etc.

At 2420, the server obtains information about the items from the user.For example, the timeline module may prompt the user, via the electronicdevice 102, to provide comments about the one or more items. Asillustrated in FIG. 25, the user provides comments about the items, suchas “My first pair of throwbacks. I still wear these from time to time.”It should be appreciated that the information obtained from the user mayinclude any of the registration information obtained at 2416.

At 2424, the sever generates an item timeline for the user. For example,the timeline module 542 compiles the information obtained at 2416 and2420 into a template that results in timeline, such as timeline 2500,that lists items in chronological order by date-of-acquisition and thatincludes item descriptions, photographs and images, user notes andcomments, etc. It should be appreciated that the timeline may includeany other suitable information about the items. Further, it should beappreciated that the timeline does not have to be chronologicallyorganized. For example, it could be organized by item category, itempopularity, etc. The timeline could also be organized in any mannerspecified by the user. At 2428, the server displays the item timeline ina graphical user interface or shares the timeline with a social network,where friends may comment, such as comments 2514. For example, thetimeline module 542 may transmit the timeline to the electronic device102 for display via the display 208.

FIG. 26 provides a flow diagram illustrating a process 2600 of adding anitem to and/or updating an existing timeline of information related toone or more items. For example, after creating a timeline, such astimeline 2500, according to process 2400, a user may desire to edit thetimeline and/or add a new item to the timeline. To do, so the user mayimplement process 2600. At 2604, the process 2600 generally begins whenthe user causes the electronic device to “scan” the smart tag of an itemthat the user desires to add to the timeline, or the user causes theelectronic device to “scan” the smart tag of an item for which the userdesires to edit or delete its appearance on the timeline. During thescan, the electronic device 102 obtains from the smart tag 120 the itemidentifier 430 associated with the item 124. The electronic device 102may obtain additional information from the smart tag, such asinstructions regarding which application to launch (e.g., could beinstructions to launch web browser and go to a specified webpage orwebsite). At 2608, the electronic device launches, open, switches to, orotherwise activates the appropriate application, or prompts the user todownload the appropriate application, if the application is not alreadyinstalled (see FIG. 6). As described above, the electronic device 102,upon receiving instruction code from the smart tag, automaticallylaunches the appropriate application or sends the appropriate downloadrequest to the application download module 514 of the digital experiencemanager 510.

Once the application is launched on the electronic device, theapplication displays a menu of options to the user. At 2612, the userselects from the menu the option to edit and/or add an item to anexisting timeline. FIG. 20 provides an example screenshot 2004 of a menuof options, including a “Create or edit timeline” option 2048. Atdecision block 2618, the application determines whether the itemassociated with the item identifier is already listed on the timeline.If not, the application gives the user the option to add the item to thetimeline at 2622. Here, for example, the application sends the serverthe item identifier of the new item, and the server obtains informationabout the item. For example, upon receiving the item identifier from theapplication, the timeline module 542 of the digital experience manager510 uses the item identifier to search the item information 560 toobtain item descriptions, images, links to webpages where the items maybe purchased or where more information may be obtained, etc.

At 2626, the application gives the user the option to add or editinformation presented on the timeline. In the event the user is editingan existing item, the user is given the option to add or removeinformation about the item. In the event the user is adding a new item,the user is given the option to select from information obtained fromthe item information 560 and to input user comments. At 2630, theapplication updates the timeline to include the new item and associatedinformation and/or to reflect the user edits to an existing item.

Referring to FIG. 27, a flow diagram is provided illustrating a process2700 of creating a timeline of events associated with an item. FIG. 28is a schematic diagram of a screenshot of an example timeline of events2800 created according to process 2700. The illustrated timeline 2800lists a chronology of events for a single item 2802. For each event, thetimeline may include an event description 2804 that includes user notesand comments, a photograph or image 2808, and friends' notes andcomments 2812. It should be appreciated that other information may beprovided, such as links to additional photos or information about theevent, etc.

The process 2700 generally begins at 2704 when a user launches anapplication on an electronic device and at 2708 selects from anapplication menu an option to create a timeline of events for an item.For example, to launch the application, the user may access theelectronic device and select the icon associated with the item. Also forexample, the user may launch the application by scanning a smart tagassociated with the item for which he or she desires to create atimeline of events. Once the application launches, according to anembodiment, the user is presented with a user interface similar toscreenshot 2004 of FIG. 20, and the user selects Option 2048 (“Createtimeline”) from the menu 2012. After selecting this option the user maythen specify that he or she desires to create a time line of events(rather than a timeline of products).

At 2712, the application sends to a server a request to create atimeline, where the request includes an item identifier of the itemaround which the timeline is to be built, as well as a user identifierof the user. For example, the electronic device 102 sends a request,including the item identifier and the user identifier, to the timelinemodule 542 of the digital experience manager 510. At 2716 the serverobtains events information related to the item so as to compile a listof events associated with the item. For example, the timeline module 542uses the item and user identifiers to obtain relevant item information560 and check-in information 576. For example, relevant item informationmay include description and images of the item and relevant check-ininformation may include the events (e.g., times and places) where theitem has been checked in. After identifying the items, the timelinemodule 542 may use the item identifiers to search the item information560 to obtain item descriptions, images, links to webpages where theitems may be purchased or where more information may be obtained, etc.

At 2720, the server obtains information about the items from the user.For example, the timeline module may prompt the user, via the electronicdevice 102, to provide comments about the one or more events. Asillustrated in FIG. 28, the user provides comments about the event, suchas “Wore jersey in my first marathon.”

At 2724, the sever generates an event timeline for the item. Forexample, the timeline module 542 compiles the information obtained at2716 and 2720 into a template that results in timeline, such as timeline2800, that lists events involving the item in chronological order andthat includes event descriptions, photographs, videos and images, usernotes and comments, etc. It should be appreciated that the timeline mayinclude any other suitable information about the events. Further, itshould be appreciated that the timeline does not have to bechronologically organized. For example, it could be organized by eventcategory, event popularity, etc. The timeline could also be organized inany manner specified by the user. At 2728, the server displays the eventtimeline in a graphical user interface or shares the timeline with asocial network, where friends may comment, such as comment 2812. Forexample, the timeline module 542 may transmit the timeline to theelectronic device 102 for display via the display 208. Also for example,the timeline can be transferred to another device 102 by ‘tapping’ andsharing via NFC.

According to embodiments, timelines can be used to create additionalvalue for item 124 prior to sale/re-sale based on item's certified“history”. For example, items, such as balls and jerseys, can “visit” ateam's locker room or home pitch/court/field prior to being shipped toretail or sold. This would be documented by “tapping” the item in thatlocation and adding the location to the item's individual timeline.Customers could tap the item at retail to see a timeline beforepurchasing. For example, a customer could use his electronic device totap the smart tag of an item and view the items timeline, which couldindicate that the item has been to particular places and/or worn or usedby particular people (e.g. famous athletes). In some examples, thetimeline could indicate that a particular item was warn or used byparticular people in a particular event, such as worn or used by afamous basketball player in an important basketball game. There could bea marketing call-out or visible tag telling the customer, or it could bea surprise that causes everyone to start tapping different products insearch of one with a special timeline. The purchase history could alsobecome part of the timeline so that famous owners of products can betraced and authenticated. This would require ownership credentials beregistered using authenticated social networking and media accounts(e.g., Twitter®, Facebook®). Products that end up on display can then betapped by guests to view the timeline on their electronic devices.

The outline can be a “time capsule” for an item that documents keymilestones and chronological events to an item using the smart tag asthe trigger. The time line can include personal achievements/records(e.g., fastest 10k, longest run, etc.), completed race events (e.g.,famous marathons, etc.), highest elevation, cumulative miles, purchasedate, etc. For non-performance the timeline could include sportingevents (e.g., visited famous stadium on Dec. 02, 202 to see two famoussoccer clubs compete, etc.), nightclubs (famous club in New York City,etc.). These events can be attached via tapping the items with theelectronic device running a custom app. All types of media can beattached to the timeline, such as video, photos, voice, and text alongwith option to share via social networks.

According to embodiments, smart tags 120 can be embedded with usefulinformation and attached to any number and variety of items, and can beavailable to share the embedded information electronic devices 102presented by any user. For example, smart tags 120 can be used as trailmarkers. These smart tags 120 can be placed along the trail (e.g.,attached to trees, posts, etc.) and include details about the trail,such as distance, altitude, historical events that occurred at or nearthe location, etc. The smart tags can also include mapping informationthat can be transmitted to and rendered by the electronic devices. Forexample, a user may tap one of these smart tags, and the smart taginstructs the electronic device 102 to download the trail route and/orto begin a workout along the route. In some instances, the smart taginstructs a workout application on the mobile device to download theroute and start the workout. The application could enable check-inand/or sharing the route on social networks. In another example, smarttags 120 may be placed on gym equipment. The smart tags could transmitto electronic devices information, such as the name/type of theequipment and information about the user's use of the equipment. Forexample, the smart tag could transmit number of repetitions and/or sets,the weight or settings used, time between each repetition and/or set,and the total workout time using the equipment. Additionally, a mobileapplication of the electronic device could instruct the equipmentregarding how much weight to load, which setting(s) to use, number ofrepetitions to count down, and prescribed rest times betweenrepetitions.

FIG. 29 is an example environment 2900 in which embodiments may beimplemented. The environment 2900 includes a computer 2926, a networkrouter 2912, a printer 2908, and a server 2910, interconnected by anetwork 2918, such as the Internet, wide area network, local areanetwork, etc. The computer 2926 includes a monitor 2906, a processor2902, and keyboard 2922. The computer 2926 can be, for example, a laptopcomputer, desktop computer, handheld computer, and electronic device,such as electronic device 102, a mainframe computer, etc. According toembodiments, users can input commands into the computer 2926 usingvarious input devices, such as a touch screen, a mouse, the keyboard2922, track ball, etc.

The server 2910 may, for example, be used to store additional softwareprograms and data. In one embodiment, software implementing the systems,methods, and processes described herein can be stored on a storagemedium in the server 2910. Thus, the software can be run from thestorage medium in the server 2910. In another embodiment, softwareimplementing the systems, methods, and processes described herein can bestored on a storage medium in the computer 2926. Thus, the software canbe run from the storage medium in the computer system 2926. Therefore,in this embodiment, the software can be used whether or not computer2926 is connected to network router 2912. It should be appreciated thatthe printer 2908 may be connected directly to computer 2926, rather thanvia the router 2912.

As illustrated in FIG. 30, an embodiment of a special-purpose computersystem 3000 is shown. For example, the digital experience manager 510and components thereof may be a special-purpose computer system 3000.The above methods may be implemented by computer-program products thatdirect a computer system to perform the actions of the above-describedprocesses and components. Each such computer-program product maycomprise sets of instructions (codes) embodied on a computer-readablemedium that directs the processor of a computer system to performcorresponding actions. The instructions may be configured to run insequential order, or in parallel (such as under different processingthreads), or in a combination thereof. After loading thecomputer-program products on a general purpose computer 2926, it istransformed into the special-purpose computer system 3000.

Special-purpose computer system 3000 comprises a computer 3002 havingconnected thereto user output device(s) 3006 (e.g., monitor), user inputdevice(s) 3010 (e.g., keyboard, mouse, track ball, touch screen),communication interface 3016, and/or a computer-program product 3020stored in a tangible computer-readable memory. The computer-programproduct 3020 directs computer system 3000 to perform the above-describedmethods and processes. The computer 3002 may include one or moreprocessors 3026 that communicate with a number of peripheral devices viaa bus subsystem 3030. These peripheral devices may include the useroutput device(s) 3006, the user input device(s) 3010, the communicationsinterface 3016, and a storage subsystem, such as random access memory(RAM) 3036 and non-volatile storage drive 3040 (e.g., disk drive,optical drive, solid state drive), which are forms of tangiblecomputer-readable memory.

The computer-program product 3020 may be stored in the non-volatilestorage drive 3040 or another computer-readable medium accessible to thecomputer 3002 and loaded into memory 3036. Each processor 3026 maycomprise a microprocessor, such as a microprocessor from Intel® orAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc.®, or the like. To support computer-programproduct 3020, the computer 3002 runs an operating system that handlesthe communications of product 3020 with the above-noted components, aswell as the communications between the above-noted components in supportof the computer-program product 3020. Example operating systems includeWindows® or the like from Microsoft Corporation, OS X® from Apple,Solaris® from Sun Microsystems, LINUX, UNIX, and the like.

User input devices 3010 include all possible types of devices andmechanisms to input information to the computer 3002. These may includea keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a scanner, a digital drawing pad, a touchscreen incorporated into the display, audio input devices such as voicerecognition systems, microphones. The user input devices 3010 typicallyallow a user to select objects, icons, text and the like that appear ona monitor via a command such as a click of a button or the like. Theuser output devices 3006 include all possible types of devices andmechanisms to output information from computer 3002. These may include adisplay, a monitor, printers, non-visual displays such as audio outputdevices, etc.

The communications interface 3016 provides an interface to othercommunication networks and devices and may serve as an interface toreceive data from and transmit data to other systems, wide area networks(WANs) and/or the Internet. Embodiments of communications interface 3016include an Ethernet card, a modem (telephone, satellite, cable, ISDN), a(asynchronous) digital subscriber line (DSL) unit, a FireWire®interface, a USB® interface, a wireless network adapter, and the like.For example, communications interface 3016 may be coupled to a computernetwork, to a FireWire® bus, or the like. In other embodiments, thecommunications interface 3016 may be physically integrated on amotherboard of the computer 3002, and/or may be a software program, orthe like.

The memory 3036 and non-volatile storage drive 3040 are examples oftangible computer-readable media configured to store data such ascomputer-program product embodiments of the present invention, includingexecutable computer code, human-readable code, or the like. Other typesof tangible computer-readable media include floppy disks, removable harddisks, optical storage media such as CD-ROMs, DVDs, barcodes,semiconductor memories such as flash memories, read-only-memories(ROMs), battery-backed volatile memories, networked storage devices, andthe like. The memory 3036 and the non-volatile storage drive 3040 may beconfigured to store the basic programming and data constructs thatprovide the functionality of various embodiments of the presentinvention, as described above.

Software instruction sets that provide the functionality of the presentinvention may be stored in the memory 3036 and non-volatile storagedrive 3040. These instruction sets or code may be executed by theprocessor(s) 3026. The memory 3036 and the non-volatile storage drive3040 may also provide a repository to store data and data structuresused in accordance with the present invention. The memory 3036 and thenon-volatile storage drive 3040 may include a number of memoriesincluding a main RAM to store of instructions and data during programexecution and a ROM in which fixed instructions are stored. The memory3036 and the non-volatile storage drive 3040 may include a file storagesubsystem providing persistent (non-volatile) storage of program and/ordata files. The memory 3036 and the non-volatile storage drive 3040 mayalso include removable storage systems, such as removable flash memory.

The bus subsystem 3030 provides a mechanism to allow the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer 3002 to communicate with eachother as intended. Although bus subsystem 3030 is shown schematically asa single bus, alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilizemultiple busses or communication paths within the computer 3002.

For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable mediumtangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing themethodologies described herein. For example, software codes may bestored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor orexternal to the processor. As used herein the term “memory” refers toany type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or otherstorage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memoryor number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.

Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may representone or more memories for storing data, including ROM, RAM, magnetic RAM,core memory, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums,flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storinginformation. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, but is notlimited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices,wireless channels, and/or various other storage mediums capable ofstoring that contain or carry instruction(s) and/or data.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of creating a timeline of informationrelated to one or more items, each of the items being associated with asmart tag encoded with an item identifier that identifies the item, thesmart tag configured to transmit the item identifier to a device whenthe device is positioned proximate to the smart tag, the methodcomprising: receiving, at a server from a device, registrationinformation related to one or more of the items, the registrationinformation including for at least some of the items a user identifierof the user, an item identifier that identifies the item, and adate-of-acquisition, the item identifier transmitted from the smart tagto the device upon the device being positioned proximate to the smarttag; obtaining, by the server, an item description of for at least oneor more of the items; generating an item timeline for the user, the itemtimeline listing an item description and a date-of-acquisition for atleast some of the items; and displaying the item timeline in a graphicaluser interface.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device thatreceives the item identifier from the smart tag and that sends the itemidentifier to the server is an electronic device of a user.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein obtaining an item description for the itemscomprises: accessing a database of item description information; and forat least some of the items, using the item identifier to locate in thedatabase an item description for the item.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the item timeline further includes images for at least some ofthe items.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the item timeline furtherincludes comments related to usage of the item.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein the item timeline further includes personal achievementsrelated to usage of the item.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the itemtimelines further includes a geographical location where the item waspurchased.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving usageinformation related to the items, the usage information including atleast one of a user identifier of a user of the item, an item identifierthat identifies the item, location information that identifies alocation of the usage, the item identifier transmitted from the smarttag to the device upon the device being positioned proximate to thesmart tag.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: listing atleast some of the usage information on the timeline.
 10. A system ofcreating a timeline of information related to one or more items, each ofthe items being associated with a smart tag encoded with an itemidentifier that identifies the item, the smart tag configured totransmit the item identifier to a device when the device is positionedproximate to the smart tag, the system comprising: a processor; and amemory device including instruction that, when executed by theprocessor, cause the processor to: receive from a device, registrationinformation related to one or more of the items, the registrationinformation including for at least some of the items a user identifierof the user, an item identifier that identifies the item, and adate-of-acquisition, the item identifier transmitted from the smart tagto the device upon the device being positioned proximate to the smarttag; obtain an item description of for at least one or more of theitems; generate an item timeline for the user, the item timeline listingan item description and a date-of-acquisition for at least some of theitems; and display the item timeline in a graphical user interface. 11.The system of claim 10, wherein the device that receives the itemidentifier from the smart tag and that sends the item identifier to theserver is an electronic device of a user.
 12. The system of claim 10,wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, further causethe processor to obtain an item description for the items by: accessinga database of item description information; and for at least some of theitems, using the item identifier to locate in the database an itemdescription for the item.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the itemtimeline further includes images for at least some of the items.
 14. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the item timeline further includes commentsrelated to usage of the item.
 15. The system of claim 10, wherein theitem timeline further includes personal achievements related to usage ofthe item.
 16. The system of claim 10, wherein the item timeline furtherincludes a geographical location where the item was purchased.
 17. Thesystem of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by theprocessor, further cause the processor to: receive usage informationrelated to the items, the usage information including at least one of auser identifier of a user of the item, an item identifier thatidentifies the item, location information that identifies a location ofthe usage, the item identifier transmitted from the smart tag to thedevice upon the device being positioned proximate to the smart tag. 18.The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by theprocessor, further cause the processor to: list at least some of theusage information on the timeline.
 19. A method of creating a timelineof events associated with an item, the item being associated with asmart tag encoded with an item identifier that identifies the item, thesmart tag configured to transmit the item identifier to a device whenthe device is positioned proximate to the smart tag, the methodcomprising: receiving, at a server from a device, at least one of a useridentifier of a user of the item and an item identifier that identifiesthe item, the item identifier transmitted from the smart tag to thedevice upon the device being positioned proximate to the smart tag;obtaining, by the server, an item description of for the item;obtaining, by the server, a plurality of check-ins of the item;generating a timeline of events for the item, the timeline of eventslisting at least some of the check-ins; and displaying the timeline ofevents in a graphical user interface.
 20. The method of claim 19,wherein the device that receives the item identifier from the smart tagand that sends the item identifier to the server is an electronic deviceof a user.
 21. The method of claim 19, further comprising: receivingusage information related to a plurality of items.
 22. The method ofclaim 19, wherein obtaining an item description for the items comprises:accessing a database of item description information; and for at leastsome of the items, using the item identifier to locate in the databasean item description for the item.
 23. The method of claim 19, whereinthe item description is a name of the item.
 24. The method of claim 19,wherein the item timeline further includes images for the item.
 25. Themethod of claim 19, wherein the item timeline further includes commentsrelated to usage of the item.
 26. A system of creating a timeline ofevents associated with an item, the item being associated with a smarttag encoded with an item identifier that identifies the item, the smarttag configured to transmit the item identifier to a device when thedevice is positioned proximate to the smart tag, the system comprising:a processor; and a memory device including instruction that, whenexecuted by the processor, cause the processor to: receive from a deviceat least one of a user identifier of a user of the item and an itemidentifier that identifies the item, the item identifier transmittedfrom the smart tag to the device upon the device being positionedproximate to the smart tag; obtain an item description of for the item;obtain a plurality of check-ins of the item; generate a timeline ofevents for the item, the timeline of events listing at least some of thecheck-ins; and display the timeline of events in a graphical userinterface.
 27. The system of claim 26, wherein the device that receivesthe item identifier from the smart tag and that sends the itemidentifier to the server is an electronic device of a user.
 28. Thesystem of claim 26, wherein the instructions, when executed by theprocessor, further cause the processor to: receive usage informationrelated to a plurality of items.
 29. The system of claim 26, wherein theinstructions, when executed by the processor, further cause theprocessor to obtain an item description for the items by: accessing adatabase of item description information; and for at least some of theitems, using the item identifier to locate in the database an itemdescription for the item.
 30. The system of claim 26, wherein the itemdescription is a name of the item.
 31. The system of claim 26, whereinthe item timeline further includes images for the item.
 32. The systemof claim 26, wherein the item timeline further includes comments relatedto usage of the item.